December 3rd 2011: Finishing Bedford and Carlisle

It was so cold that even the multiple layers of clothes I wore were not enough to keep out the frostiness. I realized this only after reaching Bedford, so it was too late to turn back. On the way to my first destination, the Lt. Eleazer Davis Elementary School, I passed by the Veterans Memorial Park on the corner of Bacon Road and Great Road, which had a few nice monuments.

After visiting the school, I went to the municipal center of Bedford on Mudge Way, but only found the town hall and the police department buildings to be of interest.

Lt. Eleazer Davis Elementary School

Bedford Town Hall, 10 Mudge Way

Bedford Police Department,
2 Mudge Way

The last place I was to go to in Bedford was Springs Brook Park at around 188 Springs Road before the Edith Nourse Rogers Veterans Administration Hospital, but I overshot the right turn, only to find that there were more buildings to the hospital than the one building I took last weekend. Pictures of the hospital follow.

With that, I headed back to to find the park. The entrance was blocked by a gate, the park being closed for the season, and I had to walk along the road to find the recreational area at the end, which includes a beach on the shores of the Springs Brook Pond.

Finally done with Bedford, I headed to the town of Carlisle next. There wasn't much in the way of interesting buildings in this town.

Civil War Memorial,
Bedford Road and Westford Street

Gleason Public Library

St. Irene Roman Catholic Church

It was time for my first hike of the day, at the Great Brook Farm State Park. The path I took is highlighted below in pink.

I happened by the farm complex along North Road, which had a nice pond nearby, so I decided to stop there to take pictures.

I then drove to the parking lot further down the way, where there is a bridge from which I took this picture of the brook.

I wanted to see what "The City" Historic Site was about, so I headed across the road first to the pond there along the Woodchuck Trail. I could hear a waterfall nearby here, but could not figure out how to get there, until I decided to trespass through the nearby log cabin and found the way. There were two waterfalls draining from the pond, converging together further downstream, which was pretty nice if not for the fallen trees, probably as a result of the snowstorm back in October.

Walking back to the junction with the Garrison Loop, I went to the supposed historic site, but other than a few rocks, there was nothing much here. I turned right to head back to North Road and the parking lot, then continued down the Pine Point Loop, following all the way to checkpoint 27 on the map. This route is used for horseback riding, so there were occasional barriers along the way for them to jump over, and of course, piles of horse poop here and there. Pictures of the scenery I took along the way follow.

When I got back to the road, I followed it to get back to my car. From here, I went to my next place of interest, the Cranberry Bog at around 850 Curve Street. This place is an actual farm for growing cranberries, and it is pretty open land here, with nice views that I took below. I have never seen such a farm before, so it was good education for me.

My last place for hiking for the day was at the Benfield Conservation Land. This place, with the entrance at about 561 South Street, was pretty hard to find. The route I took after parking my car at the Spencer Brook Reservation near the junction with West Street is highlighted below in pink.

The trailhead was nearly invisible, except for the fact that it was on the only patch of grass on that side of the road, so I managed to distinguished the trampled part of the field to be the path. Walking all the way through the woods and on to another field, I managed to finally find the platform, hidden behind some trees. The platform looks out into the swamplands, though not as beautiful as at Grassy Pond Conservation Land in Acton.

With that, I was done with sightseeing for the day. My friend had called me to hang out in Boston, so we went, parking at the Prudential Center. The place had nice christmas decorations, shown below.

Once outside, I took a few pictures of the surrounding buildings, as I always do in Boston.

Prudential Center

The Mother Church,
First Church of Christ, Scientist

Downtown Boston

Our destination was the Boston Common, but to get there we had to pass through Copley Square, and there were 2 sets of demonstrations going on today, one against Syrian oppression of its people and one for the Occupy Boston Movement.

Syrian Protests

Occupy Boston Protests

When we finally reached the Boston Common, we decided to grab some lunch at the nearby UBurger on 140 Tremont Street. I got myself the All-Star Burger, while my friend got the Grand Slam Burger, which were both equally delicious. 

All Star Burger

After our quick lunch, we decided to head to the frozen Frog Pond in the Boston Common to check out the ice skating. As it turned out, they decided to resurface the skating area, so I managed to capture the empty arena, which quickly filled up with people again soon after.









After watching for a short while we decided to walk toward the Boston Public Garden, with me taking some pictures of the scenery at the Boston Common along the way.










The one man band was on his break when we crossed Charles Street to get to the Public Gardens, but there were still some roses in bloom here, so I decided to take some pictures.

We then headed to the Lagoon here to take a few pictures of the weeping willow trees along its shores.

Finally, the one man band was back, and we stood to watch his performance for a while, which was pretty good considering how well he had to coordinate all his limbs in order to play every single song.

The One Man Band

At this point, another friend that I was going to hang out with called me, and we headed back to the frog pond to do some ice-skating. To be honest, I'm not very good at it, so I was pretty much hanging around the railings all the time we skated.

By the time we were done, it was already getting dark, but all the christmas lights were coming on, so we went to take a few pictures of the christmas tree nearby, shown below.

After this, we decided to have dinner nearby before we went for the Peter Pan Show, with the tent pitched out in front of City Hall at 1 City Hall Plaza. We first went to the bar Clarke's at Faneuil Hall, but decided that it was too noisy, so we headed to the Italian chain restaurant Bertucci's instead, which was right next door. After our dinner, we headed back for our show. I do not want to spoil the show for anyone, but it was amazing, and the all round views and how the flying was done was a totally new and fascinating concept to me, and I did not regret paying the 40 bucks for the ticket at all. I highly recommend this show, and it's only going to be around till the end of the year.

With that, we took the T back to our car after the show, and headed home for the night.