June 30th 2013: Sightseeing Before and After Doing Food Truck Stuff

This morning, I woke up early to do some sightseeing before heading to do food truck stuff. I decided to get some breakfast first in the Allston area of Boston, settling on @Union, a nice cafe which was open at this time of morning.

After looking at the menu, I decided to get the Banana Avocado Smoothie

and the Coconut French Toast (with grilled pineapple, coconut flakes and powdered sugar)

The smoothie was really hearty and I could only finish half of it, while the french toast awed me with its presentation and tastiness, as I am not really a fan of shredded coconut, but I finished it all this time. A definite recommend from me for this place.

From here, I headed to the South Boston area to doing some sightseeing there,

Our Lady of Czestochowa

St. Monica Church

Fourth Presbyterian Church

Joseph Moakley Park,

446 Old Colony Avenue

My last destination in the morning was Carson Beach, which was a much better beach than Savin Hill Beach, which I visited yesterday. Pictures I took here before heading off to do food truck stuff follow.

After dealing with food truck stuff, I had to leave a little early to attend a friend's birthday party at Skyzone, the trampoline park in Everett which I have been to before. As it was the last time I was here, I had lots of fun playing dodgeball for an hour, although it was pretty intense and tiring.

After our time was up, my friend decided it was still too early for dinner, so we bid each other farewell, and I decided to head to the town of Melrose nearby to continue my sightseeing there and have dinner as well, passing by the Winslow Condominiums at 14 Locust Street in Everett along the way.

I decided to grab dinner first, heading to Spice of Melrose, a decent Thai restaurant in downtown Melrose, where I had a groupon to use.

After looking at the menu, I decided to get the Salmon Salmon Roll (crispy rolls filled with salmon fillet and spinach, served with oriental style cream sauce) for an appetizer,

the Tom Ka Ta Lay (Spicy coconut soup with fresh selected seafood, mushroom, scallion) for soup,

the Three Taste Mango Fish (pair of crispy haddock fillet and homemade spiced mango sauce) and

the Chiangmai Noodle (Yellow curry with chicken and shrimp served with egg noodle, crush peanut, and fried shallot)

 The starters came out in the form of a small sweet steamed bun,

which was pretty interesting, and I dipped it with the sauces from my food. The soup was marvelous, the sweet coconut taste blending well with a tinge of tanginess to complete the dish which I lapped up hungrily. The salmon was a little dry, but thankfully the sauce that went with it made it alright. The fish was crispy yet fresh and cooked just right, going well with the pineapple-mango sauce,

while there was more curry goodness with the noodles.

A definite recommend if you are ever in town.

After dinner, I spent the rest of the day taking pictures of various places in Melrose.

City Hall

First Baptist Church

Fire Department

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall

War Memorials, 585 Main Street

First United Methodist Church

Bank of America

Ell Pond

Public Library

Trinity Episcopal Church

Melrose Family YMCA

Mary Foley Park

St. Mary of the Annunciation Church

First Congregational Church

Beebe Estate

Milano Senior Center

Melrose Church of the Nazarene

Green Street Baptist Church

Melrose Highlands Congregational Church

With the sun having set for good, I headed home for the day, satisfied with my evening of sightseeing in Melrose.

June 29th 2013: Visiting the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

I had a full plate of events today, but before that I still had time in the morning to do some sightseeing in the Dorchester area of Boston. Pictures of the places I visited follow,

Nonquit Street Green,

Nonquit Street and Dudley Street

Engine 21 Firehouse

James Blake House

College Bound Dorchester Little House

Waymark Seventh Day Adventist Church

Boston Spanish Seventh Day Adventist Church

Strand Theatre

Pilgrim Trinitarian Congregational Church

Spanish Church of God,

450 Quincy  Street

St. Peter's Church

Compass

Coppen's Square,

Bowdoin Street and Adams Street

Reverend Allen Park,

Adams Street and Church Street

First Parish in Dorchester

Paul A Dever Elementary School

including the Edward Everett Square which had several interesting sculptures,

before going to grab breakfast at McKenna's Cafe in town.

McKenna's Cafe seems pretty popular with the locals for breakfast, and was pretty filled with people when I arrived.

I decided to get the Eggs Florentine (2 dropped eggs, turkey, spinach, florentine sauce on toasted English bread with baked beans and home fries, which looked just like eggs benedict, except with turkey bacon.

It was pretty disappointing, however, as the turkey meat was way too dry and could not be saved with any of the sauces available.

After lunch, I went to visit the Savin Hill

and Malibu beaches,

which were pretty disappointing as well, as there was as much grass as there was sand at Savin Hill Beach, while Malibu Beach was more a bed of rocks than a beach to say the least.

I have since realized that I was not at Malibu Beach proper, which is further south of where I went, so I will head back there some day.

From here, I headed to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum to view the exhibits about former president John F Kennedy there. I never knew he was a good writer.

After leaving the museum, I decided to take a short walk outside along the Harborwalk South Boston, along Savin Hill Cove,

which had beautiful views of the Boston Harbor, and I walked from outside the museum at Fallon Pier,

through to Old Harbor Park,

stopping short of Carson Beach before heading back to my car.

Finally it was time to head for my meetup BBQ at Arsenal Park in Watertown, where I had a real fun time meeting people, manning the grill and playing Ultimate Frisbee with friends. We had been worried that it would rain, but as it turned out, it never did.