July 17th 2018: Hiking Southwest After Work

I started out this morning at Wicked Bagel, a small but modern looking cafe in Lexington,

 getting a Multigrain and Salt Bagel with Maple Butter.

Pretty good start to the morning, and definitely one of the better bagel places I have been to.

For lunch, I went to Maddi's Cookery and Tap House, a new bar restaurant in Worcester.

Pretty interesting menu, of which I got the Kimchi Burger (hoisin glazed burger, house made kimchi, fresh veggies, fried udon noodles, chilli garlic aioli, buttered bun).

Extremely scrumptious, the crispy noodles really adding to the texture of the burger. Definitely coming back again to try their other stuff.

After work, it was pouring, but I decided to press ahead with my sightseeing for the day, starting with a hike at the Wolf Swamp Wildlife Management Area, where the path I took to get to the water body here is shown below in pink.

I got my socks wet, but somehow I managed to get to the water body.

Probably not worth the long hike though.

My next hike in town was to find Hamant Brook Reservoir, the path I took from 96 Breakneck Road being shown below in pink.

Really overgrown, and no views to be had for all my troubles.

My next hike was in Union CT,

Kinney Pond, Kinney Hollow Road

Pinney's Pond, 558 Buckley Highway

at Myers Pond, where the path I took from 275 Bigelow Hollow Road is shown below in pink.

Pretty nice views of the pond

from the bridge.

As I was leaving town, I noticed that the Union Historical Society was open, so I decided to go check it out.

Instead of hiking up Snow Hill in Ashford CT, I was able to drive to the end of Snow Hill Road, where there were no views to be had.

My final town of the day was Stafford CT,

First United Methodist Church

St. Edward's Church

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

checking out Hyde Park

before calling it a day for sightseeing in the rain, heading to Basil's Restaurant in town for an Italian dinner.

I got the Tortellini Rose  (Cheese tortellini sautéed with sausage, mushrooms, and spinach, finished in a light tomato cream sauce),

which came with a Chicken Pasta Soup.

The soup was nothing special, but the tortellini was actually pretty tasty, and I could not even finish it.

Can see why it is the top restaurant in a small town.