January 11th 2015: Snowtubing in Littleton and More

I started out in Andover this morning, going for a hike at the Goldsmith Woodlands. The path I took here is shown below in pink.

There were several beautiful views of the snow covered and frozen Foster's Pond from here.

From here, I headed to Littleton, where I had a meetup event to go snowtubing at the Nashoba Valley Snow Tubing Park.

This is the first time I have done snowtubing, although I have done summer tubing in the past. It was pretty fun and exhilarating at times, especially when going down with another person at the same time.

The lift mechanism used to carry us up the slopes were pretty ingeniously designed as well, automatically letting go of the tube at the top of the slope.

Pictures I took here follow.

After I finally decided to call it a day, I headed to Woburn for lunch at Central Grill and Cafe, a decent Brazilian place in town.

I got the Porcao Mixta (Mixed Meats: pork, chopped beef, sausage)

which was pretty good except for the onions, and quite a large portion too.

After lunch, I headed to Arlington, where there was a Japanese New Year celebration going on at the town hall.

When I arrived, people were making speeches in Japanese,

so I took the opportunity to get some food, getting the Mitarashi Dango (rice cakes on a skewer),

which tasted a little weird to me.

I stayed for a while to watch people playing the flute,

mochi making (I did not know it was that large scale),

and a Shishimai dance (Japanese lion dance).

At this point, there was a break, so I decide to head back out to Littleton to check out the Littleton Historical Society which was open now. Pictures I took here follow.

From here it was on to the Westford Museum in Westford.

Finally, I drove all the way to Marblehead to visit the Marblehead Arts Association.

At this point, it was time to go pick my friend up to go for a 5-course tasting meal at Ribelle, a pretty upscale restaurant in Brookline.

Our first course was the Beef Carpaccio (black truffle, rice, parmesan).

My friend did not like raw beef, so I pretty much had both portions to myself. Pretty good, although I did not realize the bits of black were actually truffle.

Next was the Napa Cabbage (tobiko, buttermilk, dill).

Initially, I thought the combination of ingredients tasted really good, but right at the end, the bitterness of the cabbage came out and really spoilt the dish for me.

The third course was the Cacio e Pepe (corn spaghetti, pecorino, crab).

Not bad on this one, though a little too cheesy at times.

Chicken (yellow eye beans, chawanmushi, rice tots) was our fourth course,

and definitely the best of the night, the chicken being perfectly cooked and not dry at all.

Finally, our dessert was the Olive Oil Ice Cream (chocolate shell).

Not bad, although strangely my chocolate tasted a little weird at times.

Overall, a pretty decent dining experience, although my friend and I both agreed that Bergamot was better.

With that, a pleasant way to end my weekend, although I have to say I think I did way too much driving today.