After my late night
yesterday, there was more to come today. My friend asked me to accompany her and a few other friends to the
Plum Island Beach in Newbury and Newburyport, and as she wanted to spend as much time as possible at the beach, I had to get up early at the break of dawn to drive to her place in Framingham. I thought it was going to be a warm day, so I decided to wear sandals and shorts, but oh I was to regret that decision. She then drove us to pick up her friend in Boston on the way to Newburyport. While waiting for her friend to arrive, I walked around a little, taking a picture of the
American Buddhist Shim Gum Do Association.
When our mutual friend finally arrived, we headed to Malden to pick up another friend, then went all the way to Newburyport for lunch at the
Grog Restaurant. The decor was pretty nice, and we went to the second floor to get the Sunday Brunch Buffet, where they custom make your omelettes.
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| Inside the Restaurant |
I first got a glass of hot chocolate, and after looking at the menu and the great choice of dishes on there, I decided not to go for the buffet after all, choosing the orange honey glazed Roasted Duck instead. My friends got the Grog Clam Chowder, Pork Dumplings, The Bradley Dip and the Reuben. Pictures of all the delicious food follow.
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| Hot Chocolate |
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| Grog Clam Chowder |
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| Pork Dumplings |
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The Bradley Dip (left), Reuben (right),
Roasted Duck (bottom) |
After our filling lunch, I finally decided to change out of my shorts into warmer jeans, while my friends checked out the nearby Dyno Records store at 1 Middle Street. I had never been in a record store before, so it was nice to check one out finally, and it was cool to see a modern record player in the store as well, with the owner explaining to me how the record was so much better at playing music than a regular CD, giving much smoother sound.
Heading out, I took one more picture of downtown Newburyport before heading out to the beach.
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Downtown Newburyport,
Merrimac Street and State Street |
While driving along Water Street toward Plum Island, I managed to taked a few pictures of the bay area sheltered by the island itself, and a few interesting houses along the way as well.
We finally parked at the end of South Boulevard and Temple Boulevard in Newbury, and while on the beach, which was lovely with fine sand and relatively strong waves, we walked for quite a bit, looking of interesting seashells and sea glass. This area predominantly has a lot of razor clams, mussells and sand dollars, while the beaches at Martha's Vineyard has tons of scallops. Pictures I took of the interesting houses linging the beach and the beach itself follow.
After spending about 3 hours at the beach, my friend and I decided to head into town to watch the Celtics-Lakers basketball game at the
Port Tavern in Newburyport. This place is a pretty nice sports bar.
While watching the game, i got 2 drinks, the Snowberry cocktail and the Mionetto Prosecco, while we shared the PEI mussels and the shrimp Nachos.
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| Mionetto Prosecco |
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| Snowberry |
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| PEI Mussels |
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| Shrimp Nachos |
As my friend was a Lakers fan while I was a Celtics fan, we had a fun time taunting each other during the game. It was too bad that the Celtics lost, however, by a meagre 3 points. I had to buy his dinner for him later. After the game, I decided to walk around town for a bit, taking pictures of the several interesting structures around town.
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Mini Clock Tower,
Prospect Street and State Street |
The
Bartlet Mall is not so much a shopping center than it is a beautiful park, with a lot of monuments and a pond right in the middle of it.
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| Frog Pond |
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| Walking in the park |
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| George Washington Statue |
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| Fountain in the pond |
Another nice place for memorials was Brown Square on Titcomb Street and Pleasant Street.
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| Brown Square Memorials |
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| Garrison the Liberator |
The outdoor sculptures at the
Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park on the shores of the
Merrimack River on Merrimack Street near Green Street were also a really nice sight to see.
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| Another Good Day |
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| An Imagined Place |
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A Divvied Dadaism Emoted (left),
Rock Star (right), Elk (bottom) |
In the same area at the Waterfront Promenade Park, views of the river and the Newburyport Turnpike Bridge can be had, with the Coast Guard USCGS Bicentennial Monument present on the site as well.
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| Newburyport Turnpike Bridge |
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| USCGS Bicentennial Monument |
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| The Promenade |
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| View of the Firehouse Center for the Arts |
Another place with interesting structures is the
Tannery Marketplace, refashioned from old mill buildings.
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| Mill No. 5 |
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| Main Building |
After this, I made my way back to meet up with my friends, and we went in search of a dinner place, but everywhere was pretty booked up, including the
Black Cow Tap and Grill, near where I took a nice view of the boats at the
Newburyport Freedom Boat Club.
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| Freedom Boat Club |
Finally, we decided to go to
Szechuan Taste, a Pan Asian restaurant in town. Being a little liquored up already, all I wanted after a cold day was some hot soup, so I decided to get the Nabeyaki Udon, while my friend decided to get me a glass of plum wine as well. I also took a sampling of his beef fried rice.
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| Plum Wine |
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| Beef Fried Rice |
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| Nabeyaki Udon |
Overall, the food was okay, and not that fantastic. Seeing this restaurant was not occupied like the rest were, this is probably one of the last choices on the list.
With that, my friend drove us home, and as she did not want me to drive home by myself, I ended up staying at her place. Oh well, back to work tomorrow.
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