November 23rd 2013: Hanging out with a Friend

This morning, I was to meet up with a friend for lunch, but before that, I decided to do some hiking in the morning. I went to the town of Clinton first, walking the Mossy Pond Trails, located at the end of Rogers Field Way, to view Mossy Pond itself. The trail I took is shown below in black.

Here, I managed to get right to the water's edge, so the pond views were pretty good.

Heading next to the town of Maynard, I first went for a small hike at the Durant Pond Conservation Area, where I walked around the small pond located here, as shown below in pink.

This pond is pretty nice as well.

The next place I went to was the Blue Jay Woods, located at the end of Blue Jay Way. The rough path I took here to try to find the water body here is shown below in pink.

Unfortunately, the paths here are so overgrown that I had to bash through the woods to get to the pond, and it wasn't even much to look at. I somehow managed to get out, but picked up a deer tick along the way that I thankfully spotted climbing up my jeans leg. I killed it promptly, of course.

From here, it was on to the town of Wayland, where I first went to hike at the Castle Hill Conservation Area, located on Alpine Road. The path I took to see School House Pond is shown below in pink.

The views of the pond were not many, although I was on top of a high ridge most of the way, so I could still see the large pond through the trees.

I tried to find the trail to get to Concord Road, but the paths seemed to be flooded, and I did not want to be wading through the mud, so I gave up and headed back the way I came to get back to my car. Not too bad a hike though.

The next place I went to in town was the Upper Mill Brook Conservation Area. The path I took from the corner of Peartree Lane and Glezen Lane is shown below in black.

The first part of the trail was simple enough, until I tried to get from Point C to Point B, where the path became flooded, and I was forced to backtrack to get lost and going to Point L first, then heading back the right way to Point D and proceeding to Point K from there.

After taking a picture of Benjamin Pond,

I headed to point A, where I mistakenly headed out to the parking lot instead of walking back around the pond to point M. I realized my mistake thankfully and headed back the right way, whereupon after I finally exited the area on Glezen Lane, I was able to walk all the way back to my car. Overall, there was nothing much to see here in this large place, so I don't recommend coming back.

At this point, my friend called to remind me of our lunch appointment, so I headed to her place to pick her up, and head to the Taste of Karibu Restaurant, a small Ugandan cafe located in the town of Waltham that I have been to before.

We both got Karibu Chai Tea, which wasn't too bad,

and my friend got the Nkoko Kuku (Chicken Stew), while I got the Ngege Samaki (tilapia stew), which came with Chapati (Afro Bread) and Muwogo (Steamed Cassava).

Both stews were actually pretty good, although I would have preferred it if my fish did not have that much bones to contend with.

In the middle of the meal, the 2 year old daughter of the store owner came over to our table, and we had fun playing with her for while. She kept playing with my phone and my camera, and she was actually smart enough to know how to take pictures without me even teaching her, and she proceeded to take tons of pictures with it, some decent, some not so much. However, all good things have to come to an end, and we had to get the father to get her to give me my camera back. She also refused to let us leave, standing in the way of the door. Another customer had to bring her into the restaurant before we could leave. So adorable.

From here, we went to explore the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown, where the views from the top of the tower were as awesome as always, although it was really windy and cold, and we only stayed up there for a short while.

From here, we decided to head to a nearby cafe in Cambridge, namely the Sofra Bakery and Cafe. This place is pretty small, although they sell really unique Mediterranean desserts with twists to them. For drinks, my friend got the Sahlep (tea made with steamed milk, ground orchid bulbs, cinammon), while I got the Rooibos Latte.

Both drinks were pretty good, although the Sahlep had a little too much cinnamon for my liking.

For dessert, we got the Milk Chocolate Tahini Cups,

and the Maureos (with Milk Jam).

I especially liked the Maureos, which were pretty much like Oreos with a different sort of cream.

The rest of the food on the menu looked really good as well, but as we had a potluck dinner to go to later tonight, we had no choice but to forgo it.

From here, we went for a little bit of shopping at the Prudential Center, and I went to Crazy Dough's Pizza nearby to get 2 large pizzas for the potluck, namely the Reuben and the Potato Bacon Cheddar, the same pizzas I got the last time I visited the branch in Brighton.

From here, we went for the Potluck at a friend's place in South Boston, and had a blast playing games like Pictionary, Cards Against Humanity and Taboo for the entire night. I never knew I could laugh so hard at extremely silly or dirty answers to posted questions in Cards Against Humanity. Definitely a good game, that one.