August 23rd 2014: Celebrating My Friend's Birthday

I started my day in Stoughton to finish my hike at the Bird Street Conservation Area where I left off yesterday.

This time, the path I took is shown below in black.

 Welch Pond wasn't too bad a view to say the least, although it took me a while to get there.

Unfortunately, I still missed out on another portion of the area, so I'll have to go back again in the near future.

From here, it was on to the town of Brockton,

Monument, Brockton Fire Museum

where I took a long drive to check out the beautiful ponds and the tower at the DW Field Park.

I also ventured into the Avon portion of the park, where Brockton Reservoir is located.

In Avon, I visited a few places

Christmas Tree Shops

Moses Curtis Park, 1 East Main Street

Civil War Monument,

East Main Street and West Main Street

Avon Baptist Church

St. Michael's Church, 87 North Main Street

John J DeMarco Park, 103 North Main Street

before going to grab some pizza from Avon House of Pizza at 163 Main Street in town, getting a Hawaiian Pizza

and the AHOP Special Sub (Steak tips and grilled chicken with feta cheese, lettuce and creamy house dressing). 

Nothing special, really. From here, it was on to the town of Holbrook

Brookville Bible Church

St. John's Episcopal Church

St. Joseph's Church

Lake Holbrook, 75 Fagus Road

before heading for my second meal at Jit's Sports Lounge and Grill in Randolph.

I got the New England Clam Chowder (Cream based clam chowder flavored with rich bacon fat and fresh cracked pepper),

the Curry Bone In Wings (House seasoned, baked then fried, and tossed with curry sauce),

the Baked Haddock (Fresh haddock cooked in white wine and butter sauce then topped with Ritz cracker bread crumbs)

and the Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.

Other than the clam chowder, which was pretty good because of the bacon in it, everything else was pretty horrible, the fish not being fresh, and the wings having very little sauce on it. Even the shortcake was uninspiring. Definitely not coming back here.

I went on short hikes at the Blue Hills Reservation next, checking out the Duck Pool in the Randolph section, where the path I took is shown below in pink.

Nothing much to see here though.

I went to see the St. Moritz Pond in the Quincy area as well, the path I took highlighted below in pink.

Once again, more of a swamp than a pond.

At this point, it was almost low tide, so I took this opportunity to head to what I call Moon Island Beach at Border Street and Bayside Road, where I could head all the way to the bridge to Long Island with low water levels.

The boats moored here are pretty much stranded at low tide,

and the views were beautiful this clear day.

It was a decent walk to Moon Island itself,

and I actually spotted a sleepy budgerigar on the rocks along the way.

I think it escaped from its owner. Hope it fares well in the wild.

Things got a little rocky from here on out to the bridge itself,

but the views of places like Deer Island, Spectacle Island

and the Boston Logan Airport were pretty rewarding.

After finally making it all the way back to my car, it  was on to Cambridge,

Beat the Belt, 13 Riverside Road

before stopping in Boston at the In House Cafe, a deli in the Allston area with a Mediterranean twist where students head to to study,

where I got a meat pie

that was just okay. Apparently they do good crepes here. I guess I'll come back here again for them.

Soon it was time to head to dinner with friends at Shanghai Gate close by, as my friend was celebrating her birthday.

I have been here once in the past, but as I was with people who did not understand Chinese cuisine, we did not really order the right stuff. This time, my friend knew better. We got the Wild Vegetable and Beancurd (Fresh wild vegetables served with 5 spice tofu),

the Four Treasure Tofu (Tofu braised with wood ear and peanuts), the Lion's Head Casserole (House-made meat balls stewed with baby greens),

the Chicken with Broccoli,

the Pork Steamed with Preserved Vegetables (served with steamed bread),

the Black Bean Chicken Wraps (Diced chicken marinated and seared in black bean sauce, served with cool lettuce leaves),

the Braised Pig Knuckle in Brown Sauce,

the Sauteed Kangkung

and the Da Chian Fish (Braised in garlic with meat sauce).

Definitely much better this time around.

It wasn't the end of the night though, as we headed to Malden for a karaoke session at 1986 KTV, a new place that opened at 76 Exchange Street recently. This place is pretty fancy, being all up in lights, and it was cool that you could write stuff on the TV screen, although like snapchat, it disappeared after a while. Oh, and you can drink here, unlike most of the other karaoke establishments in the area.

I didn't really like the song selection technology though, and they were still not very up to date either, although most of the new songs were in their original music video form. In that respect, I still prefer Do Re Mi in Boston better, although this place comes pretty close.