After a fun time in Boston
yesterday, it was time to resume my sightseeing this morning, this time in the town of Westford. It was still really cold this morning as I headed to my first destination, the
Nashoba Valley Ski Area. You would think that the place would be operating in this weather, but the hills were still green. I have been here skiing before though, and as a beginner in skiing and snowboarding, I do not really like this place because there are no real beginner slopes, and the bunny slope is too small. Anyway, views of the hill without snow follow.
The next place I went to was the
Kimball Farm. This place is sort of a leisure park with facilities like mini-golf, bumper boats and batting cages. Everything fun is currently closed for the season, but I think I'll come back here when it's warmer next year. Another place here that was also closed for the season is
The Butterfly Place.
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| The Country Store |
Chickens at Kimball Farm
I went for my first hike on the
Stone Arch Bridge portion of the
Tom Paul Trail. I chose to park at the small parking area along Cold Spring Road between Pine Ridge Road and Forge Village Road, and the path I took is shown below in pink.
From the parking area, I headed along the trail, and when I passed by Blue Bird Hill, I saw an interesting sight. In the areas covered by shadow, there was a thin layer of white ice on the grass. The sun was slowly creeping in though, and where the light shone, the land was green. Pictures of this sight are shown below.
I then headed up the unmarked trail to the top of the hill, where there were some nice views of the surroundings.
I headed back to the main trail and continued along the path, capturing pictures of Stony Brook Reservoir on my left.
Eventually I reached the stone bridge itself. There is a path leading down to the water's edge, allowing me to capture the graffiti covered bridge.
From here, I went to the railroad tracks, walking down the hill to it. I then chose to walk along it to reach Pine Ridge Road.
When I reached Pine Ridge Road, I realized that the railroad ran on a bridge above the road, rendering it inaccessible from the railroad. The views of the reservoir from here were pretty good though.
Thankfully, North Main Street nearby was close enough to the railroad for me to get onto it, and from there I walked to Pine Ridge Road, and all the way down to Cold Spring Road, where I turned right to get back to my car.
I then visited several places of interest before heading for lunch. Some nice places include the
Stony Brook Middle School area,
Forge Pond Beach behind the memorials on the corner of Prescott Street and Pleasant Street,
Edwards Beach on Williams Avenue and Edwards Avenue, on the shores of Nabnasset Pond, and the
John A. Crisafulli Elementary School, which looks so alike to the
Rita Edwards Miller Elementary School.
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| Old Stone Mill, 69 Broadway Street |
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| Views from Stony Brook Middle School |
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| John A. Crisafulli Elementary School |
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| Rita Edwards Miller Elementary School |
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Forge Village Memorials,
Pleasant Street and Prescott Street |
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War Memorial,
~5 North Main Street |
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| Forge Pond Beach |
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| Edwards Beach |
Sunday brunch was spent at
Mario's Restaurant, where I had an omelette with cheddar cheese and, you guessed it, corned beef hash, with home fries and butter toast on the side. It wasn't too bad at all. Do note that it only accepts cash.
After brunch, it was time for another hike, up
Kissacook Hill behind the
Norman E. Day School. The route I took is shown below in pink.
The hike started out nice enough, but eventually there were so many downed trees that I lost sight of the trail. I ended up bashing through the trees trying to find my way back to the trail, using the water tower as a landmark, but I forgot that the trail was to the left of the tower, so I bashed up the hill to the right of it instead, getting more and more lost. Eventually, I realized my mistake and tried to bash in the right direction, eventually getting back onto the trail.
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| The Water Tower |
I had hoped to have a nice view near the top of the hill, but all I got was an arrangement of stone benches around a podium.
The rest of the way was pretty simple enough to loop back to my car, although there was nothing much to see. I definitely don't recommend hiking here in future.
My next destination was the town common area on Main Street and Boston Road. The town common itself has several nice monuments, not to mention the historical buildings around it as well.
The Westford Town Common
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| Town Hall, 55 Main Street |
The last place I went to in Westford today was the
Grassy Pond Conservation Area. The parking area can be found along Plain Road close to its junction with Villanova Drive. The route I took is shown below in pink, which was pretty much just going around the pond.
I met an old man while hiking here who was really into bird-watching, and we had a nice conversation about cameras and types of birds, so much so that I did not even realize we had walked all around the pond by the time we were done and looking out onto the pond. He had a pair of binoculars with him, and I had the rare chance of observing hooded mergansers using them as they frolicked in the pond on the far side from us.
With that, I was done with sightseeing for the day. I headed to Boston again to see my friends and watch an
Improv Asylum show, which was pretty good, with one of the scenes being inspired by an interview of my friend who had come from Chicago, depicting a day in her life in a comical fashion.
After the show, we decided to head to one of the many Italian restaurants in the area in the North End,
Lucia Ristorante and Bar, for dinner. I had a pasta dish, the Ammazzafame, which was really good, being a penne dish sauteed with porcini muschrooms, broccoli, sliced sausages, sun-dried tomatoes and capers.
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| Ammazzafame |
Dessert was the next course, at
Mike's Pastry. I initially did not want to jostle with the rest of the crowd, but I decided that I had to at least try something at the famous pastry shop, so I got 3 cannolis with different fillings, namely yellow cream, strawberry and pecan caramel.
With that, I decided to head home because I have work tomorrow. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Boston this weekend.
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