April 15th 2013: Tragedy at the Boston Marathon

Today was Patriot's Day, when the annual Boston Marathon is held.

I had to help out with the food truck today, but I also had to deal with some green card stuff later in the afternoon. Before heading to the food truck, I visited the Fellsmere Pond Park in Malden, where the views of the pond from various vantage points was very beautiful, and it was interesting to see mallard ducks pair up in male-female pairs, although there was one male-male pair, which made me wonder a little.

I also took some pictures of the Mystic River from the Wellington Bridge at ~240 Fellsway in Medford.

When I left to do my green card stuff, I had to pass by the marathon going on on Boylston Street. Things were still going as per normal at this point in time, 1 hour before the blasts, so people were still cheering the runners on.

After dealing with my green card stuff in the West End area close to 3pm, I decided to grab lunch at the Red Hat nearby, a 2 floor bar restaurant, and the first thing I saw on TV was that all hell had broken loose at the finish line of the marathon. I could not believe this was happening at all, and continued watching while I ate my food, of which I got the Coconut Shrimp (Plump butter flied shrimp rolled in coconut, fried until golden, served with an orange marmalade sauce),

Lobster Ravioli (Maine lobster stuffed ravioli, lightly sauced in a plum tomato Alfredo sauce),

and the Alpine Burger (Smothered in sautéed mushrooms and Swish cheese).

All the dishes were just okay though. It was also at this point that I realized that I had left my phone on the food truck, so I was unable to call anyone to tell them that I was okay, nor answer any messages about my safety. I walked back to where I thought the truck would be, but apparently it had been shut down by the police, so it had already gone back to the kitchen. I had to pass by Boylston Street where the bombings had taken place, and by then it had already been cordoned off.

When I got back to my car, I went to the kitchen, trying to find my friend who would have my phone, and thankfully he arrived after coming back from an errand, or I would not know what I would do without my phone. It had been a bad day for food truck business, but we still decided not to let it affect us, and we headed to John Brewer's Tavern, a pretty typical bar restaurant with typical bar food nearby for dinner. I wasn't too hungry, so I decided to get 10 Honey Buffalo Wings,

while my friend got the Elaine’s Marinated Steak Tips (sirloin tips marinated with a blend of BBQ sauce and honey, served with garlic mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables).

Both dishes were actually not too bad, though pretty typical for this sort of restaurant.

With that, we called it a day. It was a terrible day for the city of Boston, but I have faith that the people are strong and move on from this, for the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and no terrorist act can keep us down.