January 19th 2013: The 2013 New England International Auto Show, Boston

Today, I decided to go visit the New England International Auto Show, going on at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston.

I had some time in the morning before having to go for the event, so I decided to check out a few places in Marlborough before going.

Saints Anargyroi Greek Orthodox Church

Old St. Ann's Church,

Gibbon Street and Lincoln Street

Sisters of the Good Shepherd Convent

Marlborough Fire Station 2,

98 Pleasant Street

Old West Meeting House,

86 Pleasant Street

First Church in Marlborough

Marlborough Public Library

Brigham Park,

West Main Street and Mechanic Street

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,

240 Hemenway Street

From here, I decided it was time to head into Boston, passing by the St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Weston along the way.

When I arrived at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, people were just starting to arrive, so the place was still not as crowded.

Besides the car show there was also an RV show going on as well.

I have to say though, the auto show itself was a bit of a disappointment. It was very small compared to the Detroit one, and I did not see any concept cars around. I guess I'm not that into cars either, and I felt that it was not worth the $10 I paid, even with the discount voucher I got, unless you were intent on getting a car soon after. Pictures of some of the nicer cars shown here follow. At least I got to see the inside of the convention center though.

With that, I headed out of the convention center, and explored South Boston a little before heading to the Back Bay Area, where I had a meetup lunch event at Samurai Express, a Japanese restaurant owned by a new friend I got to know recently.

I headed out toward the World Trade Center along World Trade Center Avenue, and took some pictures of the Boston skyline from there.

leading into the second floor area of the World Trade Center, I took a couple more pictures here before heading down.

From here I headed to the Eastport Park nearby. There were several interesting sculptures in this area.

Walking to the Back Bay area, I passed by another art fixture on the Fort Point Channel.

By the time I arrived at my destination, I was still early, so I decided to check out the Our Lady of Victories Church nearby.

Finally, it was time for lunch at Samurai Express, a pretty small but decently decorated restaurant close to Fire + Ice. It was a set lunch for the five of us who went, with the first course being the usual miso soup.

Next up, avocado salad, which had pretty good presentation and taste as well.

We were then given an interesting Japanese pumpkin drink, which was mildly sweet to taste.

Always a favorite of mine with very little that can go wrong, the seaweed salad was next.

The sushi was next. What surprised us was, when the first boat of sushi was done, out came another. We were getting full really fast.

If you thought that was the end of it, Chicken Katsu with rice was up next.

Finally, it was dessert, with the cucumber wrapped Naruto served up.

Overall, a pretty good and filling lunch. I had to leave early to attend another meetup event to go ice-skating at the Steriti Memorial Rink at 561 Commercial Street, and passed by an anti gun control protest outside the Massachusetts State House as I proceeded there on foot.

When I finally reached the rink itself,

I suddenly had a change of heart, considering that I am pretty bad at ice skating and had already done some recently at Kendall Square in Cambridge, so instead of renting skates for just 5 bucks, I decided to head off and visit the Old North Church nearby instead. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is free to visit the Old North Church, to look at its internal layout, which was pretty beautiful.

After leaving the church, I decided to head to Lulu's Sweet Shoppe nearby to use my Groupon for a dozen cupcakes.

Unlike the last time I tried during the Christmas week, I was able to use it this time round at the small cake shop, and there were enough unique cupcakes for me to try.

From top to bottom, left to right: Red Velvet Cheesecake, Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Cream, Lulu's Cream Filled, Turtle Cheescake, Nutella, Oreo, Smores, Cookie Dough, Funfetti, Banana Caramel

Leaving the North End, I wanted to visit the Sports Museum at the TD Garden, but as the opening ice hockey game for the Boston Bruins meant that it was closed today. Thankfully, they won today.

At this point, I decided to call it a day after having walked from one end of Boston to the other and back, and headed to The Ginger Pad in Burlington for dinner.

This place is pretty nicely decorated, and somehow today was a really busy night for the restaurant as they were short-staffed.

Thankfully, the two maki rolls I ordered, the O.M.G. (Hokkigai (surf clam), cucumber, tobiko* wrapped with tuna, drizzled with the chef's horseradish + wasabi sauces),

and the Serendipity (Seared scallops, crabstick, tempura flakes, spicy mayo, "secret" sauce, wrapped with seared yellowtail, black tobiko), came pretty quickly.

I was not much of a fan of O.M.G. due to to the strong taste of wasabi, although my experience with the other roll was much better.

I ordered the Crispy Cheesecake Rolls, containing banana cheesecake and covered with ginger caramel sauce, and they took quite a while to come as the crowd had become pretty significant by now. Thankfully, my wait was worth it as the dessert was pretty good, and while waiting, my friend happened to turn up at the very same restaurant for dinner with her friend so I talked to her while I was waiting.

With that, I said farewell to my friend and headed home for the day. I am surprised that I wasn't tired at all after all the walking I did today.