March 29th 2014: Badminton and Hiking

This morning, I had badminton to go to, so I decided to start off with breakfast at the Weston Road Cafe, a small place with only a few tables in the town of Wellesley. I got my Hot Chocolate as always, and a Steak and Cheese Omelet.

The steak used was shaved steak, and it was really filling and tasty. After another fun badminton session, I had to head out to help my friend with food truck prepping, so I headed out to Malden to have a brief lunch at Maplewood Coffee Shop and Ice Cream. This place is more like a candy store than a cafe, but I had $10 to spend here, so here goes. I decided to try their special drink, the Electric Richie, made with Red Bull and Italian Ice, getting it to go with Mango flavor. For food, I got an Apricot Danish,

and a Chicken Pot Pie.

The drink was actually pretty good for what it was, although the food was just so-so.

From here, I decided to do some hiking in the Middlesex Fells reservation, first going to find the Cascade Falls located in the town of Melrose, starting off my short trek at the end of Goodyear Avenue.

To get here, I needed get onto the Cascades Trail, turning right at the trailhead and walking a short distance to get to the falls, which was thankfully more than a trickle right now, what with all the rain going on.

Next, I went to check out Doleful Pond, Spot Pond, Quarter Mile Pond and Dark Hollow Pond in the town of Stoneham.

The path I took to see Doleful Pond, which wasn't much to see anyway, is shown below in pink, starting at the end of Tedford Road.

Dark Hollow Pond was a little better, located off 643 Main Street. I could not find parking except at Gate 24, so I had to hike to the pond, the path I took being shown below in pink.

Spot Pond was pretty nice from the Spot Pond Boating Center.

Quarter Mile Pond was only slightly better, located a little off Woodland Road.

I decided to head to the kitchen after this, where my friend decided to have dinner at Bronwyn in Somerville. We got the Giant Wurst Platter (6 sausages (Kielbasa (smoked pork, garlic, coriander), Lemon Weisswurst (turkey, pork, parsley), Spicy Bierwurst (pork, paprika, cayenne), Currywurst (pork, veal, curry),Zungenblutwurst (blood, tongue, pork), Thüringer Bratwurst (veal, pork, egg)), potatoes, sauerkraut, haus mustard)

and the Haxe (2 lb. bone-in, beer-braised pork shank, sauerkraut, potatoes, apples), both of which were pretty good.

With that, my day of badminton and hiking came to an end. More hiking to come tomorrow.