November 10th 2013: Exploring Abandoned Tunnels and Candlepin Bowling

I woke up bright and early today to start my sightseeing for the day.

My first destination was the abandoned railway tunnel, located at ~188 Boylston Street in the town of Clinton. There is a small dirt path leading up the hill to the mouth of the tunnel, which is actually really close to the roadside, cleverly hidden by a layer of trees. To think that I passed by this place so many times in the past, and never knew it was here.

The mouth looks innocent enough, the sides all covered in graffiti, and the other end did not seem so far away.

As I entered, the light from the outside helped,

but as I proceeded onward, it just got darker and darker,

and I had to use my torchlight to guide me along.

Being a little scared that something or someone might jump out at me from nowhere, I even started using my camera to flash out the way.

Thankfully, the ground was pretty level, and the place was devoid of any life, so I managed to make it to the other side without any issues.

This end of the tunnel is a little waterlogged, but I was just relieved to be back out in the open.

Unfortunately, the only way back to my car was going back the way I came, so I had to make the trip one last time.

Thankfully, this time it was faster as I was now familiar with the path, and soon I was back at my car.

From here, it was on to other places in Clinton. I did a tiny hike at the Rauscher Farm to see Clamshell Pond. The path I took is shown below in black.

Thew view of Clamshell Pond was pretty decent actually.

One last place I visited in Clinton was the Duck Harbor, which has a beautiful view of Coachlace Pond.

In the town of Stow, the first place I went to was Spindle Hill. The rough path I took here to try to get to the top of the hill is shown below in black.

On my first attempt, I tried to get to the hill via Gates Lane, but the place was so overgrown that I gave up. I then decided to try to head in from the Wheeler Road side instead. I was able to follow the path for a bit, and then got lost on a side trail that led me all the way back to Gates Lane. Determined to get to the top of the hill, I backtracked to the stipulated path with the help of the GPS on my phone. Finding only overgrown paths, I pushed on in the right direction, bashing through the trees to get higher. I did manage to find signs indicating I was on Stow Conservation Land, so I knew I was on the right path. However, there were no views to be had at the top of the hill. Not wanting to go back the way I had come, I happened to notice a tower in the vicinity, and after checking my GPS, I realized there was a path from it leading to Wheeler Road, so I bashed through to it, and managed to walk on the road back to Wheeler Road and back to my car. A waste of time, but what an adventure.

From here, I headed to visit a few other places in town

Fletcher's Pond, 9 Box Mill Road

Minister's Pond, 290 Great Road

White Pond, 581 Sudbury Road

including the beautiful town beach at the Pine Bluffs Recreation Area.

At this point, my friend told me that she wanted to have Bo 7 Mon (7 Courses of Beef) at Pho Le in the Dorchester area of Boston.

After picking her up, we headed to the restaurant, which was right next to another Vietnamese restaurant. There were a lot of Vietnamese families eating here today.

I've had Bo 7 Mon at Pho Hoa in Malden before, but had a feeling that the courses might be different at this new place, and they were a little different.

Beef Fondue (Bo Nhung Dam)

Beef Salad (Goi Bo)

from left, Grilled Scallion Beef (Bo Nuong Hanh),
Beef Meatball (Cha Dum), 
Grilled Beef in Betel Leaf (Bo Nuong La Lot)

Grilled Sesame Beef with Butter (Bo Nuong Bo)

Beef Porridge (Chao Bo)

I have to say, all the dishes were exceptionally good, especially with my Vietnamese friend to tell me how to eat them. The Mung Bean Smoothie I got

and the Mango Smoothie my friend got were also pretty good.

After a delicious lunch, I decided to go candlepin bowling with my friend, as she had never done it before. We did this at the South Boston Candlepin, a typical candlepin bowling place with manual scoring and resetting of pins.

As always with beginners, they have the luck of winning, but thankfully I somehow managed to win the last game of 3.

From here, we headed to dinner in the town of Stoneham at Melissa's Main Street Bistro, a small upscale restaurant in a small town setting.

We decided to get the Prosciutto and Asparagus in Puff Pastry Drizzled with Balsamic Glaze for an appetizer to start things off.

It was a little burnt though, so we did not enjoy the dish very much.

For our main dishes, I got the Pan Roasted Duck Breast (spinach, mushroom and pecan wood smoked bacon risotto, port wine and fig glaze),

and the Braised Beef Short Ribs (Homemade mashed potato and sauteed spinach).

Both dishes were actually really good, the duck going well with the sauce, and the beef being really tender as well.

The Vanilla Creme Brulee (with fresh whipped cream)

we got was pretty good as well.

Overall, a pretty good meal if not for the burnt appetizer.

With that, we called it a night as we were still not feeling well. Time to go back to work tomorrow.