This morning, I had made plans to go cycling on the
Emerald Necklace in Boston and Brookline, so I headed toward
Franklin Park, which is the rough starting point in the necklace area, early in the morning. I passed by several places along the way there.
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| Media Art Center |
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| Regis Lewis Track and Athletic Center |
Finally reaching Franklin Park, I decided to park along the Seaver Street side of the park and unloaded my bike.
With my bike, the path I took in Franklin Park to visit the Schoolmaster Hill, passing by the rear gate of the
Franklin Park Zoo along the way, is shown below in pink.
At the top of Schoolmaster Hill, where there were some ruins, there were fantastic views of the
William J Devine Golf Course below.
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| The ruins on Schoolmaster Hill |
William J Devine Golf Course
Heading back down the hill, I went to see the 99 steps, which were just steps in the hill there, but could not find the Ellicott Arch due to a lack of time. Proceeding on, I headed out of the park into the Arborway to head toward the
Forest Hills T-Station, passing by the
West Roxbury Courthouse along the way.
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| West Roxbury Courthouse |
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| Forest Hills T-Station |
From the station I decided to head northeastwards to explore the entire
Southwest Corridor Park, which follows the Orange Line closely.
It was a nice morning ride, with a few stops here and there to take pictures of interesting buildings close to the trail, all the way to the
Back Bay T-Station, where the bike path ends.
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Old Jamaica Plain High School,
2 Elm Street |
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Monument near Boston Police Headquarters
on Southwest Corridor Park |
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| Police Memorial outside Police Headquarters |
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Near the end of the
Southwest Corridor Park |
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| Back Bay T-Station |
It was at this point that my friend called me to tell me that her bike tires were flat, and that she would not be able to come biking with me. Thinking I could save the situation by getting back to my car and driving to her place with a pump, I decided to head back to the Back Bay T-Station, and took it all the way back to Forest Hills, along with my bike. I have to say, it was a little difficult to bring my bike through the turnstiles at the station, and holding it inside the train itself all the way was a little cumbersome as well.
After getting off at Forest Hills, I cycled all the way back to my car, packed my bike in, then started heading off when my other friend called to tell me that he would not be coming as well because of the cold weather. As a result, I was alone on my bike ride as it stood now. At this point, I decided to give up on the original plan.
Today, there was a
Boston vs. NYC Food Truck Throwdown event going on at
Dewey Square, so I decided to head there instead.
After finding parking on Dorchester Avenue alongside the
Fort Point Channel, where there was interesting art on the water as well, I headed toward Dewey Square where all the action was.
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Bobbing Water Art
on Fort Point Channel |
There were already a ton of people lining up at the 10 Boston and NYC trucks parked at Dewey Square.
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| The Food Truck Throwdown at Dewey Square |
Given that I had limited time and money to spend here, I decided to concentrate on the Boston trucks, namely
Staff Meal, the
Cookie Monstah and
Lobsta Love, with me already having tried
Mei Mei Street Kitchen and
Roxy's Grilled Cheese before. All the trucks had long lines before them, so I hhad to wait awhile to get my food.
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| Staff Meal |
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| The Cookie Monstah |
From Staff Meal, I got their special, the Peking Pig's Head Taco, which had
Black Bean Mayo, Lap Cheong Fried Rice and Fried Garlic, which was excellent despite the weird name
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| Pig's Head Taco |
From the Cookie Monstah, I got one of each of the cookies they had on sale. I loved the Red Velvet Cookie the best, although the rest of the cookies were a little too sweet for my liking.
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| My Bag of Cookies |
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| Sugared Sugar |
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| Red Velvet |
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| Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin |
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| Chocolate Chunk |
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| Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip |
Finally, from Lobsta Love, I got the Lobster Mac and Cheese. To be honest, while the Lobster itself was fresh, and the Mac and Cheese tasty, I was actually very disappointed that the lobster was pretty much from a cold lobster salad, placed on top of warm Mac and Cheese, and not cooked together like it should be.
After enjoying my food, I decided to head back to my car, where I had already spent too many quarters trying not to get a ticket, so I decided it was time to head out from there.
After pondering a little, I decided that since I already brought my bike all the way out here, I decided that I might as well explore the Emerald Necklace anyway. With that, I headed all the way back to my old parking spot at Franklin Park, which was still there. From here, I decided to explore more of Franklin Park, heading to Scarborough Pond and Scarborough Hill by the path shown below.
I passed by the William J Devine Golf Clubhouse along the way.
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| William J Devine Golf Clubhouse |
At Scarborough Pond, there were tons of Canadian geese here, though not as much as the people at Dewey Square.
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| Scarborough Pond |
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| Bridge over Scarborough Pond |
I went to the top of Scarborough Hill, but the views here were not as good as at Schoolmaster Hill. '
Heading down the other way, I decided to go check out another viewpoint of Scarborough Pond, on the west side of the pond.
From here, it was back onto the road to continue my exploration of the Emerald Necklace. The path I took here to
Jamaica Pond is shown below in pink.
At the Forest Hills T-Station, I turned northwestwards this time, heading past the
Arnold Arboretum along
the Arborway, passing the so-called Jamaica Plain Christmas Castle at 61 Arborway, which wasn't decorated this time of year, but still impressive looking.
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| The Arborway |
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| Jamaica Plain Christmas Castle |
At Jamaica Pond, the views of it here were simply awesome, especially from the boathouse area.
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| The boathouse area |
The viewpoint at Pinebank Promontory was not to be had though.
As indicated on the map, there is the Parkman Memorial at the corner of Francis Parkman Drive and Perkins Street, so I decided to cycle around the pond to check it out.
Heading on to
Olmsted Park and beyond, the path I took here is shown below in pink.
On my first pass, I could not get very good views of Leverett Pond as I cycled through Olmsted Park.
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| Leverett Pond |
It was difficult to go across Route 9 traffic while crossing over to the other side of Jamaicaway, bypassing the Jamaicaway Bridge, but somehow I managed.
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| Jamaicaway Bridge |
Heading into the Riverway area, there was an interesting leaf covered structure which turned out to be the 110 Francis Street Parking Garage of the
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The Riverway contains the
Muddy River, which runs right through the middle of it on the way to the
Charles River
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| The Muddy River |
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| Bellevue Street Bridge |
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| Round House Shelter |
Emerging from the Riverway, I headed toward the Fenway portion of the Emerald Necklace, passing by the
Landmark Center along the way.
While cycling along Fenway, I passed by
Emmanuel College and
Simmons College along the way.
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| Chapel, Emmanuel College |
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| Beatley Library, Simmons College |
Continuing along the
Back Bay Fens, I passed by the back of the
Museum of Fine Arts
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| Man on a Bar, MFA |
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| Muddy River, Back Bay Fens |
The Back Bay Fens itself has a nice War Memorial area with many monuments.
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| Japanese Temple Bell |
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| WWII Memorial |
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| Korean War Memorial |
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| Vietnamese War Memorial |
Moving along, I passed by Westland Avenue, where there's the
Westland Gate and
Fire Alarm Office.
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| Fire Alarm Office |
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| Westland Gate |
After reaching the end of my journey at the corner of Boylston Street and Charlesgate, it was time to head back the other way on the side of the necklace I had not explored. Here, I first came upon the
Kelleher Rose Garden after bypassing the Fenway Victory Gardens which are community gardens. I had to maneuver my bike carefully here in order not to trample on the flowers.
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| Kelleher Rose Garden |
Next, I came upon a soccer game being played at the
Roberto Clemente Field.
Nearby is the
Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral.
Heading back through Olmsted Park, I took more pictures of Leverett Pond.
As I headed to the Arnold Arboretum after cycling the other way around Jamaica Pond, I passed by the
Monastery of St. Clare.
At Arnold Arboretum, I decided to cycle up Peter's Hill. The path I took here is shown below in pink.
I ended up walking my bike up the hill, but the view of the Boston Skyline from here was simply fantastic.
From here, I headed all the way back to my car, going through the Bussey Brook Meadow along the way to the Forest Hills T-Station and all the way back to my car. By the time I got there, the sun had almost set, so it was time to end my day of travelling and head to
Tom Yum Koong III in Newton for dinner, where I had a Groupon as always.
This Thai restaurant is pretty small, and pretty crowded when I arrived. I had to sit at the bar for a bit until someone left a table before I could sit down. I decided to order the Tom Yum Koong Maki, which had tempura shrimp, cucumber and tom yum flavor, topped with lime leaves, the Mango Fried Rice, and the Superior Duck, crispy boneless duck served with brown lemon sauce, broccoli, mango and fresh basil.
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| Tom Yum Koong Maki |
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| Mango Fried Rice |
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| Superior Duck |
The sushi roll was interesting with the Tom Yum flavor, while the duck was delicious as expected.
I would recommend this place, although it is pretty small, mainly because of its small amount of creativity, especially in using mango in its dishes.
With that, a fun day of biking in Boston was over, although I wish my friends had come with me too.
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