December 16th 2012: A Cold, Rainy Day in Massachusetts

Today, I had another party to go to in Malden at my friend's place, so I set off in that direction, heading first to the town of Hudson to take pictures of a few places I missed before.

Carmel Mar Thoma Church

Grace Baptist Church

Tighe Hamilton Funeral Home

First Federated Community Church

Massachusetts Army National Guard,
35 Washington Street

Assabet River Waterfall,

Washington Street near South Street

St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Hudson Fire Department #2,

1 Washington Street

Memorials,

Central Street and Lincoln Street

Unitarian Church of Marlborough and  Hudson

Finally done with Hudson, I headed toward Wayland, stopping by Framingham along the way.

1001 Worcester Road

First Baptist Church

First Parish in Framingham Unitarian Universalist

Plymouth Church

Framingham Center Village Hall

Community Education Center,

Framingham State University

Northeast Community Bank,

35 Edgell Road

It was on to Wayland next, where I intended to use my groupon for a second day of frozen yogurt at Frozen Yogurt Innovations. I had over $20 to spend here, but thankfully, I was able to get a card with an equivalent of 50 ounces of yogurt credit on it, so I did not need to make a huge pile of yogurt and toppings this time.

In the end, my yogurt was only 15 ounces, and I was able to finish it this time around. I still have no talent in making my yogurt presentable though.

My next destination was the city of Somerville for brunch at the Five Horses Tavern, passing by the Celebration International Church in Wayland along the way.

When I finally found parking near Davis Square in Somerville, I realized that the 6th Somerville Jingle Bell Run had just finished, and people in Santa hats were all over town, eating brunch at the bars in the area. As expected, the Five Horses Tavern was crowded with people, but thankfully I did not have to wait very long out in the cold before being let in. There was another wait inside the pretty decent bar restaurant for a table, but thankfully I was able to entertain myself by conversing with my friend over the phone.

After I finally got a seat, I decided to get two tacos and the Lobster Mac and Cheese.

The Pork Belly Taco came with crisped confit pork belly, pickled red onions and dragon lady sauce, and was simply awesome, with the Potato Taco, containing crispy oven roasted potatoes, bean puree, avocado, herb vinegar and sea salt, coming close behind.

Unfortunately, I could not say the same about the Mac and Cheese. The cheese was pretty grainy, and the rest of the pasta was pretty bland, although the lobster meat was good as always.

Overall, I think I will give this place a recommend, especially with the huge crowd present here today.

After my brunch, I decided to head to northern Cambridge to start my sightseeing there. After parking near the Trolley Square Park on Cameron Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue, I walked through it to take pictures of some of the interesting artwork here.

From here, I decided to continue walking around to visit different places instead of driving around for fear of not being able to find another parking spot, even though it had started raining by now. I visited a total of 3 places before the sun went down for good, namely the Greater Boston Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church,

Danehy Park, an extremely large park on 99 Sherman Street,

and the Fresh Pond Reservation.

From Danehy Park, Fresh Pond is just a short walk away at the junction of Alewife Brook Parkway and  Concord Avenue. The path I took here to walk around the fenced up reservoir is shown below in pink.

It was pretty gloomy already at this time of day with the rain and all, but I was still able to see interesting things, like ducks I have never seen before swimming in the pond.

As it turned out, there were some birders here observing and counting the birds before, and one old man told me that they were canvasback ducks and ring necked ducks, along with others that I cannot recall any more. More pictures of the water bodies in the area other than the pond, of which I could only take 2 pictures due to the high fences, follow.

Walter J. Sullivan Water Treatment Facility,

250 Fresh Pond Parkway

Finally done with Fresh Pond, I walked all the way back to my car, before heading to my friend's place in Malden, where he was cooking up a storm for his stepbrother's birthday party. All that excellent food just made an otherwise gloomy day so much better.