May 14th 2014: Dinner at Rye and Thyme, Leominster

Today after work, I decided to get dinner close to home, going on several hikes before that. My first hike was at the Eaton Pond Park in Shrewsbury, where the path I took from the end of Leonard Parkway to try to view the pond is shown below in pink.

There were no views to be had though, unfortunately. My next destination was Elmer's Seat in the town of Boylston. After parking on Maple Way, the path I took to try to find the view here is shown below in pink.

It was tough to find the trailhead, with a sheer cliff facing the road. I managed to find my way up the cliff, but did not realize I was already at the viewpoint, which was a pretty good vista.

I walked along the pretty overgrown paths to try to find the viewpoint, and got nowhere with it, only then realizing my mistake. Not a bad view though.

From here, it was on to the town of Leominster, where I headed to Prospect Park first. The path I took to get to Prospect Pond is shown below in pink.

The pond wasn't much to see though.

Next, it was the Doyle Community Park and Center in town.

The path I took here after parking at the Doyle Center is shown below in pink.

Heading up north from the parking area on the blue trail,

The view from the Upper Meadow area was just okay,

while the small pond here was pretty serene.

The views from the grasslands were pretty awesome though.

After heading back to my car, I decided to call it a day and head to dinner at Rye and Thyme, a pretty decent bar restaurant in town.

The menu looked pretty interesting, with me getting their soup of the day, a Potato, Kale and Sausage Soup, which was actually pretty good,

and the Pork Osso Buco (colossal cider glazed pork shank, bourbon mashed sweet potato, garlicky kale sauté, toasted walnuts, bourbon molasses).

I was pretty impressed with the presentation, but not so much with the taste at first, the kale being a little bitter, but eventually I warmed up to it, combining it with the mashed sweet potatoes, so overall it was actually pretty tasty, the pork being fall-of-the bone state. Not bad at all. Glad I decided to look up this place instead of getting Chinese takeout.