Today it was snowing a little, but as I had to travel to Boston for a meetup event later in the day, I decided to chance it and go sightseeing anyway.
My first trip was to the town of Berlin to visit some trails that I did not hike on before. I first headed to the
Brewer Brook and Berlin Meadows area, where I parked on the corner of Central Street and Pleasant Street on the grass patch there. The rough path I took is shown below in pink.
From the parking area, I walked along the main path, passing through Berlin Meadow to get to the Brewer Brook area. At the fork, I decided to head across the bridge first, then followed the brook down to the dam area. The view of the brook from here is beautiful. I then headed the other way back around the brook back to the fork and back to the car. Pictures I took along the way follow.
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| Brewer Brook |
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| Brewer Brook Dam |
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| On the way back |
The next place I went to was the
Gates Pond Reservoir in the same town. I initially wanted to enter the area from the end of Estabrook Lane, but when I got there, I could not find the trailhead. I had to be in Boston in 2 hours time to pass my friend something, so I decided to go to the end of Taylor Road instead to try my luck. This time, it was the main entrance to the area, so I had no problem at all. The path I took around the reservoir is shown below in pink.
Several beautiful views of the reservoir from various vantage points follow.
The next place I decided to visit before rushing to Boston to see my friend was the
Willard House and Clock Museum. Unfortunately, this place only gives tours and photographs are not allowed inside, so I could only take this picture outside, which does not speak much about what is inside. However, other than the collection of clocks in the house, it is nothing much more than what a home would look like during the late 1700s
With that I headed to Boston, passing by the Carney Hospital and Saint Mark Catholic Church along the way.
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Saint Mark Catholic Church,
1725 Dorchester Avenue |
After meeting my friend I decided to try out something in the area for lunch, heading to Anh Hong, a Vietnamese restaurant at 291 Adams Street in Dorchester, Boston. Instead of getting the beef pho I always get at Vietnamese restaurants, I decided to try something different for a change. I went for the Chao Tom (shrimp paste cakes) appetizer, and the Chao Long (porridge with pork liver and blood) for the main meal.
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| Chao Tom with Fish sauce |
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| Chao Long with Twisted Doughnuts |
I liked the shrimp cakes a lot, especially in the sweet fish sauce dipping sauce. The porridge was kinda typical though, although I ended up dipping the twisted doughnuts in the fish sauce as well, which was a good idea. Maybe I should stick to pho after all.
After lunch, I went back to Newton to continue my sightseeing there. The first place I went to was
Houghton Garden. After parking on the side of the street near the junction of Suffolk Road and Woodman Road, the route I took is shown below in pink.
The entrance to this place seems locked, but the pedestrian gate can actually be opened, and after entering, I headed down the left fork, turning at the bridge to take in views of Houghton's Pond.
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| Houghton's Pond |
I then headed down the path to see the stone seat on the map.
Next, I walked to the stone bridge, where there was a small dam here as well.
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| Stone bridge |
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| Small dam |
Other than that, there was nothing else to see here in this small place. Maybe it was because it was winter, but I don't think I'm coming back here again.
The next place I went to hike at was the
Webster Conservation Area and Hammond Pond Reservation. After parking at the lot along Hammond Pond Parkway close to Boylston Street (Route 9), I first took a few pictures of Hammond Pond, which was beautiful.
I decided to explore the area a little more, with the route I took shown below in pink.
From Hammond Pond, I walked the trail to try to get to Hammond Pond Parkway, but somehow lost my way on unmarked trails and found myself walking back to my car instead. I decided to try again, this time driving to the parking lot of
Congregation Mishkan Tefila before continuing my trek to see the Cake Rock and Gooch's Cave.
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| Gooch's Cave |
Neither of the rock formations were very impressive though, and I made my way back to my car by walking along Hammond Pond Parkway.
Next, I visited a few other interesting places in town before heading to
Boston College in Boston and Newton.
Finally, it was time to head to the Boston College Main Campus, which straddles Newton and Boston. Today, I only had time to visit most of the Newton area, venturing a little into the Boston area. The campus is beautiful, I must say. Pictures of the interesting structures I saw follow.
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| Burns Library |
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| St. Mary's Chapel |
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| Thomas P. O'Neill Jr Library |
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| Gasson Hall |
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| Fulton Hall |
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| Devlin Hall |
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| Saint Ignatius Loyola |
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| Silvio O Conte Forum |
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| William J. Flynn Student Recreation Complex |
Before I could finish my tour of Boston College, it came time for me to head to my meetup event to watch the movie Hugo at the
AMC Loews Theater at 175 Tremont Street. I had already watched this movie at the exact same theater
a while ago, but my friends were going as well this time, so I decided to tag along as well. After the show, we headed to
Pho Pasteur for dinner. This was the first restaurant in Boston that I ate pho at the first time I was in town, so I decided to get something different this time around. We decided to share the appetizer Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancake), while I had the Com Suon Bi Cha (Rice with pork skin, minced pork cake and BBQ pork chops).
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| Banh Xeo |
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| Com Suon Bi Cha |
The appetizer was really good, especially with the sweet fish sauce, while the main dish was really too big for me. I ended up eating all the meat and a little of the rice before I was full. Aside from the food, we had a good time talking about things including a funny conversation about instant noodles. I have since read that I was wrong about the noodles being covered in a layer of wax. Oh well. More disinformation from me.
With that, I was done sightseeing for the day.
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