I needed to start training for my upcoming 400 mile bike ride in New York, so I decided to spend today cycling with my friend in the Boston area after not having done so for quite a while now.
Before that, I headed to the town of Wayland to do some hiking there,
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| Covered Bridge, 219 Rice Road |
heading to the
Loker Conservation Area first. The path I took here is shown below in pink.
None of the water bodies here were anything to look at though.
Next was the
Hamlen Woods in town. The path I took here is shown below in black.
The water bodies here were much nicer looking and more open, although the path leading to the one on Rice Road was overgrown, and I had to give up halfway through. Pictures I took here follow.
With that, I was done with Wayland, proceeding on to Lincoln, were I visited the Beaver Pond area at ~123 Tower Road. The rough path I took from here is shown below in pink.
Beaver Pond itself did not have any good views,
although the bigger ponds on Stony Brook were pretty nice, complete with a waterfall. Pictures follow.
I got a little lost in the end, but thankfully I made it out with time to head to Arlington for breakfast at
Gail Ann's Coffee Shop. A typical small breakfast place with a donut display,
I decided to get a bacon, egg and cheese croissant,
as well as a Boston Kreme donut.
The croissant wasn't too bad, although the donut somehow did not suit my fancy today.
From here, I went to meet my friend at the
Alewife T-Station in Cambridge, and we left from there on the
Minuteman Bikeway, passing through Arlington, taking a short break in Lexington,
then heading to the start of the trail in Bedford before cycling back to Lexington, where we stopped for lunch at
Royal India Bistro, where I had been to
a long time ago. This time, I
got the Kabuli Channa (North Indian specialty, subtly flavored chickpeas flavored with ginger and garlic),
while my friend got the Thali (Daal (lentils dish cooked with fresh onion, ginger, garlic and spices), Mattar Paneer (peas cooked with ginger, garlic, onion, cubes of cottage cheese and spices), Vegetable Masala (vegetables cooked with creamy tomato sauce with onion, ginger, garlic and spices), served with Naan, Raita).
Even though everything was vegetarian, we actually enjoyed our meal thoroughly. My friend liked the peas the best, while I liked my chickpeas the most.
After lunch, we headed back to Alewife, then proceeded to cycle around Fresh Pond, before heading further south to the
Charles River to cycle on the
Paul Dudley White Bike Path, which follows the Charles River all the way to Watertown from Boston. We passed by two university boathouses along the way
to Chapel Street in Newton, upon which we decided to turn back and head for home, as I had a meetup dinner to go to later tonight. After getting back to my car, I decided to go have some food at the
Cherry Tree, a bar restaurant in Newton.
I decided to go with the Steak Tips (house marinated sirloin tips),
the Chicken Vegetable Soup,
and the Cherry Tree Wings (Special Blend).
The steak was cooked pretty nicely, though a little burnt, while the sauce for the wings tasted a little like spicy mayo. The soup wasn't too bad either.
After my meal, I had some time before my meetup dinner in Brookline, so I went to check out a few pieces of artwork in parks in Cambridge, visiting Alberico Park on the corner of Allston Street and Pleasant Street
and Nunes Park on Brookline Street and Allston Street.
With that I headed to Yasu, a Korean BBQ place in Brookline, for dinner. A decently big place,
it wasn't long till everyone had arrived, and we could sit down at our tables and order food. My table got the Teok Bok Ki (assorted vegetable, fish cake, rice cake, boiled egg and special spicy sauce),
the B.B.Q Combo 1 (Kalbi, bulgogi, pork bulgogi, chicken bulgogi with mushroom and vegetable)
and the Seafood Hot Pot (lobster, squid, shrimp, fish, scallop and clam meat cooked with fresh vegetable ).
Our delicious side dishes came out first,
followed by the rice cakes which were equally good.
Our server placed the entire BBQ plate on the grill for us,
but not before we took a picture of the initial plate of course.
The seafood hotpot contained an entire octopus,
and even this little thing which was so hard to chew I had to cut it open with a pair of scissors, and it squirted juice out.
Apparently it is called a sea squirt, and is typically eaten in Korea. Not a fan for sure as it tasted weird.
We got free dessert at the end as well.
Overall, I did not think the BBQ stuff was very flavorful, although the rest of the food wasn't too bad. I would give a cautious recommend, given the lack of Korean BBQ places in this area.
After dinner we went to the nearby JP Licks store for dessert. I got the Salted Caramel Ice Cream, which was pretty good as expected.
It was a great night hanging out with friends, and it was good to know I still had it in me to bike 40 miles. I hope I can do 400.
