September 15th 2012: Driving a Lamborghini for the First Time

This morning, I had reservations to drive a Lamborghini for 3 laps with my friend at the Gillette Stadium parking lot in Foxborough with Imagine Lifestyles.

Before coming, I was wondering how it was possible that a racetrack could be set up at the stadium, but seeing the cones set up as I came in, along with the cars racing on the tracks, I was all psyched up to go.

Although the line was a little long, the wait was not so bad. I had wanted to drive the black Lamborghini, but as the card played out, my friend got it, while I got the grey one behind.

My friend getting into his ride

My Ride

Initially, I was very nervous driving the car, but as my instructor beside me encouraged me, I became more daring, and the ride became a little more fun.

At the end of the 3 laps, which was over too soon I think, I felt it was an interesting experience to
drive such a sporty car. However, it also felt similar to my experience driving an F1 go-kart at F1 Outdoors in East Bridgewater. Hence, it felt like I had wasted a ton of money doing this. But then again, at least I can say I did drive a Lamborghini before. Thankfully, my friend had a great time driving his black Lamborghini.

After the drive, my friend and I went our separate ways. I decided to spend the rest of my day sightseeing, first heading to the town of Sharon to explore the Massapoag Trail, where I parked at the parking lot located on Billings Street near Deborah Sampson Street. The path I then took from here is shown below in pink.

Near the parking lot is a nice view of Mann's Pond.

I walked east a little first to take a picture of the dam here.

I then backtracked to my start point and headed the other way, walking through the woods and finally coming out on Ames Street, crossing the road and entering the next part of the trail to get a view of Hammer Shop's Pond.

At this point, I decided that it was not worth my time to walk the rest of the way to Lake Massapoag, so I headed back along Cottage Avenue, then turned right onto Billings Street to head back to my car.

I did not want to explore Borderland State Park today, so I headed into Canton instead to do my sightseeing there. One of the interesting places I visited was the Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate, which is a nice big old house with a big garden. I do not know why, but although I saw people going into the house, I was stopped by the lady there who said it was not open to the public. In order to get to the garden, I had to make one big round around the house, using the Rhododendron Walk to get to the garden, which was quite beautiful.

St. James Lutheran Church

Christ's Ambassador's Ministries

Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate

From here, I decided to go further down the road to climb up the Little Blue Hill at the Blue Hills Reservation. After parking at the lot at around 3000 Washington Street, the path I took while here is shown below in pink.

From the parking lot, I found the connector path leading to the Skyline Trail, then walked along it to get to the unmarked path heading up Little Blue Hill. After getting lost for a bit, I finally got to the top, where there were okay views of the town below, and of Great Blue Hill to the east.

Northward View

Great Blue Hill in the distance

I tried to find a path down the other side of the mountain, but failed to do so after several attempts. Backtracking, I turned on hearing something large move in the brush beside me.

It turned out to be a male deer with a full set of horns. I looked at him, he looked at me, and we just stood there for a while, me taking pictures of him, him probably scared that I was going to shoot him, me scared that he might charge me with those horns at any moment, although I did takes many shots of him.









Heading back to my car using the Skyline Trail to head back to Washington Street, I went even further down the street to the Blue Hills Ski Area, which was not operational at this time of year, of course.

The Blue Hills Trailside Museum, which was right next door in Milton, was my next place of interest. This place, is pretty much like a mini-zoo. It is free to view the outside enclosures, but $3 to see the exhibits inside. I did not have enough cash, and as they had a $5 minimum for credit cards, I was forced to buy the "National Audubon Society Regional Guide to New England", which actually is a really good book for identifying animals I have seen on my travels. The museum inside  was small but pretty nice, with a lot of interesting live animals, including a skunk.

Snowy Owl model

Map of the Blue Hills

The Museum

Eastern Garter Snake

Barn Owl

Bees in a hive

Golden Shiners

Northern Copperhead

Timber Rattlesnake

Gray Tree Frog

View of Trailside Museum Pond

Model of Native American Massadchuseuk Village

Outside, there were more animals to see, although I only got good pictures of a few..

Turtles in the pond

Turkey Vulture

Red Tailed Hawk

When I finally left the museum, I decided it was time to visit the Davis Museum at Wellesley College before it closed for the day. This museum is actually pretty nice and big, with some pretty decent exhibits, as shown below.

By now, I was so hungry as I had not eaten all day, so I hurried to Stone Hearth Pizza in Needham to use my $30 Groupon there. The restaurant is actually pretty nice for a pizza place.

Restaurant decor

With respect to the food, I got the bacon chowder soup, a Junior sized Chicken Pesto Pizza (Signature sauce, mozzarella/provolone blend, oven roasted chicken,
goat cheese and fi nished with a housemade pesto)  and a Bacon and Blue Pizza (Garlic oil, julienned zucchini/squash blend, mozzarella/provolone blend, smoked bacon, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes, and finished with fresh basil), and a Mac and Cheese to boot.

Chicken Pesto Pizza

Bacon Corn Chowder

Macaroni n' Cheese

Bacon and Blue Pizza

Although I liked the soup, the rest of the dishes were actually just okay in my opinion. It might have been a wrong choice of dishes. I might give this place another chance based on decor.

After lunch, I headed into Brookline to finish off my day of sightseeing. Some interesting places I visited including the Hellenic College campus, and the Larz Anderson Park on the corner of Goddard Avenue and Newton Street, where the Larz Anderson Auto Museum is also located. These two places had great views of the Boston skyline as well.

Latvia Lutheran Church

Holy Transfiguration Monastery 

Park at the Hellenic College

Archbishop Iakovos Library

Archbishop Athenagoras Cavadas Administration Building

Holy Cross Chapel

Boston Skyline from Hellenic College

A Day of falling acorns

Statue of Archbishop Athenagoras

At Larz Anderson Park

I'm glad that I went to the Larz Anderson Park when I did, as the views of the setting sun were simply breathtaking from here.

Larz Anderson Auto Museum

With the night being too dark to take any more pictures, I decided to head to Peyton's Riversedge in Maynard for dinner. This place is a pretty typical bar restaurant, and it was full of people when I arrived. I had already done some research on what I wanted to order, so I did.

I got the French Onion Soup, the Shrimp Stuffed Popper (Fire roasted poblano pepper, stuffed with grilled shrimp and mascarpone cheese) appetizer, and Peyton's Steak Tips, tossed in homemade bourbon glaze. 

French Onion Soup

Shrimp Stuffed Popper

Peyton's Steak Tips

The soup was okay, while the steak tips tasted really good, with the sweet taste of the glaze going well with the rare tender meat, but somehow I could not deal with the popper, where the taste of the pepper was way too strong for my liking.

Regardless, I could hardly finish my food because of lunch. After packing it to go, I headed out to look for gas, as I was almost out. I headed out of the town into Stow, but the gas stations were all closed. At one of the closed gas stations, a cop actually pulled up beside me to ask what I was doing there, probably thinking I was going to rob the place or something. He directed me to Hudson for gas. There, the Mobil station was closed as well, but thankfully, the Sunoco station nearby was still open, and once again I escaped running out of gas completely.

With that I headed home. Driving a luxury car was a waste of my money, but thankfully the rest of my day wasn't.