November 28th 2013: Celebrating Thanksgiving with Strangers

Today, I was to organize a meetup event for people in town without Thanksgiving plans to go watch the movie "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" at the AMC Loews Boston Common 19 theater. Before that, I spent my morning visiting several places. In Hopkinton, I first went to hike at the Whitehall/Fruit Street Trail. The trailhead was pretty hard to find as it was hidden behind a parked trailer beside the old Hopkinton Fire Station in Woodville at ~235 Wood Street. The path I took while here is shown below in pink.

Other than a waterfall at the site of the old mill dam, there wasn't anything  much else here.

From here, I headed to the Duck Pond Trail, located within the Hopkinton State Park at ~90 Saddle Hill Road. The path I took while here is shown below in pink.

The pond itself was not too bad to look at, although the state park itself is really close by.

 The next place I went to was the Zettek Overlook, where the views of the surroundings were pretty good.

From here, I headed nearby to the Greenwood Road Trails, where I entered at about 9 Greenwood Road. The trail I took here is shown below in pink.

There were only partial views at the viewpoint though.

After viewing Bloods Pond at 32 South Mill Street,

I headed next to College Rock at ~23 College Street, where the rough path I took is shown below in black.

There wasn't any views to be had at the top of the rock though.

From here, I decided to check out Wildcat Pond in the town of Milford on the map at ~150 Cedar Street, where the path I took is shown in pink.

The pond itself wasn't too bad.

I headed back into Hopkinton to visit the Berry Acres Conservation Area. The path I took to view the water body here is shown below in pink.

The pond itself was nothing much to look at.

From here, I headed into Holliston, where the first place I went to hike at was the Frank A. Rees Trail, where I entered from ~470 Gorwin Drive. The path I took here is shown below in black.

The pond I came to see wasn't too bad, although the place was a little flooded.

After visiting Weston Pond,

It was time for another hike at the Poitras and Daniels Conservation Areas. I initially thought the trailhead was at the end of Fieldstone Drive, but it turned out to be just across the road from Holliston High School near Mellen Street on Hollis Street. The rough path I took while I was here to try to find the view here is shown below in pink.

Unfortunately, I got very disoriented while I was here, and did not see any good views at the top either. I ended up exiting the place via Fairlane Way and walking all the way back to my car along the road. A disappointing hike to say the least.

From here, I decided to head to lunch at Grasshopper Restaurant, a Chinese vegetarian place located in the Allston area of Boston. This place looks like a typical Vietnamese restaurant, and the food I got was actually pretty good.

I got the Light Assorted Appetizers (Vermicelli Roll, Edamame, Sesame Seaweed, and Cool Buckwheat Noodle),

the Vietnamese Style Veggie Pizza (with tofu, vegetables, assorted seitan and salad),

and the Steamed Spicy Tofu and Assorted Seitans Hot Pot (with lemon grass and pineapple).

Of the dishes, I was only disappointed with the buckwheat noodles, where they slapped a dollop of peanut butter right on top of the noodles with not much else effort. Other than that, all the other dishes were pretty tasty, though I could not finish most of it.

From here, I headed to Chinatown to find parking, and after doing so, I still had quite some time before the movie, so I decided to get some dessert at Hing Shing Pastry at 67 Beach Street in Chinatown. Apparently the egg tarts and mooncakes here are good, so I got a Lotus Seed Mooncake 

and an Egg Tart,

as well as a Walnut Cookie.

I was not disappointed at all, although I would prefer my egg tarts with sweeter crusts.

From here, I headed to the cinema to meet up with everyone else. The movie was actually pretty good, although I don't know if I will pay that much for the IMAX experience again.

After the movie, we headed to New Golden Gate Restaurant at 66 Beach Street in Chinatown for dinner. We ordered lots of dishes, namely the Snow Peapod Stems,

the Steamed Crab with Glutinous Rice,

the Seafood Nest,

the Walnut and Shrimp with Salad Dressing,

the Beef and Broccoli,

the Fried Flounder,

the Salt and Pepper Squid,

the Twin Lobsters,

the Black Pepper Beef

and the Soy Sauce Chicken. 

The food was extremely good, and I even tried eating the chicken head. There's nothing much here except the tongue and the brains though.

With that, my Thanksgiving Day turned out to be fun after all. Looking forward to my trip to NYC tomorrow to see my friends.