October 21st 2013: Fighting a Speeding Ticket in Brookline

Today, I had to take the day off to fight a speeding ticket I got several months ago in the city of Brookline. I had some time before that, so I decided to do some hiking, firstly in the town of Northborough at Cedar Hill. The path I took to get to the summit of the hill is shown below in pink.

After parking at the end of a dirt road leading from ~270 Lyman Street in Westborough, which was somewhat hard to find, I headed up the Cedar Hill Trail to the top, where the views of the fall foliage from there were pretty good.

I then headed down the other way, turning into the Plantation Trail when I reached the junction with it, and then right onto the Crane Swamp Trail and back out to my car. A pretty easy walk, I recommend coming here for the view.

From here, I headed to the Turenne Wildlife Habitat in Southborough. The last time I was here, I failed to find the view, so I was determined to try again and succeed this time around. The path I took this time around to find it and to find the water body within the Southborough Town Forest is shown below in pink.

This time, by taking another route, I managed to find the view near the Bird Garden, although it was not as good as at Cedar Hill.

The garden itself and the water body in the town forest were nothing to look at though. Overall, not a place worth coming back to to hike.

From here, I drove to the town of Wellesley to get some breakfast from Express Gourmet, a small deli in town. The Smoked Turkey Delight (smoked turkey with fresh green apple slices, sprouts, crispy bacon with honey mustard on seven grain bread)

and the Italian Panini (pepperoni, salami, ham, mortadella, provolone, hot peppers, mayo)

that I got here were really good, the apples and honey mustard going well with the turkey, the bacon providing the extra crunch, while the hot peppers and mayo gave the panini all the flavor it needed together with the spiced meats.

Excellent start to my day of eating.

From here, I headed to the Brookline District Court in Brookline to fight my speeding ticket. The procedure is actually pretty simple. After hearing my name called out, I was ushered into a room with only 2 people, namely the cop who caught me speeding, and the magistrate. I was first asked to swear to tell the truth, and then the cop first proceeded to describe his side of the incident, which was pretty boring as he was just reading off his notepad of tickets. I was then allowed to give my side of the story, which I said I was using my cruise control at the time and had no idea my car had sped up going down a hill, where the cop caught me. The magistrate told the cop to give me a break, and just like that, my ordeal with thinking that my insurance would go up yet again all those months was finally resolved.

Happily leaving the courtroom, I headed to lunch at Osushi, a pretty small but pretty upscale Japanese restaurant located within the Westin Copley Place hotel, at the Gallery at Copley Place, in downtown Boston.

The service was a little slow, but the food I got, namely the Saba Battera (Cured mackerel, rice seasoned with ginger, shiso, scallion, and sesame seed, with marinated seaweed), which came looking like sushi,

 and the Tonkotsu Red Ramen (Pork Broth, spicy garlic oil, ginger, scallions, egg, wakame, nori),

were simply delicious and I gobbled everything up quickly, partly also because my car was parked at a meter which was running out of time.

As another Groupon I had was at a Mediterranean restaurant, Laffa, that was pretty nearby, I decided to use this opportunity to run to it and get some takeout food. 

This place is more a takeout place than a restaurant, and it actually sells froyo as well. I decided to try it as a result, while waiting for my Beef Shwarma Box

and Shuka Pita (eggs marinated in a vegetable and tomato broth, slow roasted and mixed with authentic middle eastern spices and carmelized onions)

to be ready.

My froyo was actually pretty good for once, although it might be because they did not have much flavors available anyway, so I did put in any weird flavors into it.

The beef did not go too well with me though, although the pita was pretty interesting witht he egg and all.

My meter had already expired by the time I got back to the car, but thankfully, I did not get a ticket yet. Seems like today was my lucky day. 

From here, I decided to take the opportunity to check out the Commonwealth Museum, which is only open on weekdays.

This museum is pretty small, located within the Massachusetts Archives near the UMass Boston campus.

The were some exhibits here,

but the area that was of note here was the Treasures Gallery, which houses the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, and the “John Adams” Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. The gallery also holds the copper plate used by Paul Revere to engrave his Boston Massacre image. Unfortunately I could not take any pictures here.

After leaving the museum, I decided I still had time to visit the Harpoon Brewery, located in the South Boston area, for a tour. The first thing I saw on entering the place was the Brew Hall,

a huge bar area which had a beautiful view of Boston.

After getting my tour ticket for just 5 bucks,

I waited for a bit before the tour started. After donning safety glasses, we were led into the kegging area, which was currently active, which I have never seen at any other brewery before, mainly because it was always on the weekends, when the machines are not active.

We were then led into the fermentation areas, which were full of huge tanks, where we were told how beer is made, which is pretty much the same everywhere.

Finally it was time for the tasting.

We got a shot of green, unfiltered beer first, which tasted horrible to an uncultured tongue like mine.

I tried the Harpoon Cider as well, but it wasn't sweet enough for me either. Oh well.

We were then brought to an area where people were strangely taking bottles from one box, then putting them into new boxes that looked the same from above, doing seemingly useless work. The tour guide then explained to us that they were packing boxes with different types of beer, taking them from boxes which only contain 1 kind of beer.

Finally, the tour was over. Thankfully, I was sober enough to head to my next destination, the Victory Road Park located in the Dorchester area. There are pretty nice views of the sea from this small park popular with dog walkers.

From here, I visited the Christ Community Church of Neponset at 51 Walnut Street in Dorchester

before heading to the Pope John Paul II Park nearby for my final stroll of the day.

It was so peaceful here as I walked around the entire park, taking pictures while the sun slowly set for good for the day.

With that, I called it a day for sightseeing, and headed to Kiku Yama Japanese Steakhouse, located in the town of Dedham, for dinner. This place has a hibachi area, but as I had already had so much food the entire day, I just wanted some sushi.

For that, I got the Big Bang Roll (fish and banana) and Lobster Salad Maki (lobster salad, lettuce, apple and cucumber topped with tobiko and yuzu sauce).

I actually enjoyed the presence of both fruits in the rolls. Overall though, the ambience of the place is nothing compared to many other Japanese restaurants in the Boston area, hence I would put this near the bottom of my list.