Recommended Places to Visit: Ayer

Recreation

Water Bodies

Grove Pond
Bligh Street and School Street

Flanagan Pond
107 Central Avenue

Balch Pond
110 East Main Street

Shaker Millpond
101 Littleton Road

Upper Long Pond
~134 Sandy Pond Road

Hiking
Recommended:
Pine Meadow Conservation Area
73 Groton Harvard Road

Long Pond Dam Trail
98 Wright Road

Parks
Pirone Park
Bligh Street and School Street


Beaches
Sandy Pond Beach
Sandy Pond Road and Snake Hill Road

Architecture

Monuments

Sweet Heart Memorial

Jackson Road, 42.54750928575126, -71.6085550605584

Places of Worship

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
7 Faulkner Street

Federated Church of Ayer
21 Washington Street

St. Mary's Church
31 Shirley Street

New Hope Community Church
139 Sandy Pond Road

Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church
141 Littleton Road

Town Facilities
Town Hall
1 Main Street

Post Office
1 Columbia Street

Library
26 East Main Street

District Court
25 East Main Street

Police
54 Park Street


Historical Buildings
Old Fire Station
15 Washington Street

Learning Express
29 Buena Vista Street

Grady Research Building

323 West Main Street

Restaurants

Highly Recommended:
Korean
Woo Jung
174 West Main Street
Recommended Dishes:
Yook Ke Jang
Bi Bim Bab made with Fried Rice

Italian
Lucia's Tavola (chain)
31 Main Street
Recommended Dishes:
Olive Fritto con Gorgonzola
Pancetta Avvolto Date
Vitello “Lucia”
Zabaglione


Chinese

Mango Grill
38 Littleton Road
Recommended Dishes:
Spicy Seafood Pad Thai


Tried:
Dessert

Ruby Donut

210 West Main Street

Recommended Dishes:

Strawberry Glazed Donut

Thai Green Tea

Capri Bakery
60 West Main Street
Recommended Dishes:
Vanilla Cupcake


Italian

Devens Pizza and Deli

210 West Main Street

Recommended Dishes:

Hot Pastrami Sub 

Western
Markoh's on Main (chain)
43 Main Street
Recommended Dishes:
Tips and Scallops
Cenci

April 29th 2022: Hiking 2 Places in Harvard at the Same Time

 Today, I started out in Harvard,

TaraVista Behavioral Health Center

Rollstone Bank and Trust

going for a hike at the Mirror Lake Conservation Area. I have visited Mirror Lake before in the past, but never went to look for Little Mirror Lake. The path I took here is shown below in blue.

While here,

I decided to take a detour to visit the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge as well, checking out the Tank Road trail this time around, the route I took going under Route 2

being shown below in blue.

Nice water body here.

Heading back into the Mirror Lake area, I went to visit Little Mirror Lake, which unfortunately has flooded out the trail, and not as nice as Mirror Lake itself.

After leaving the area, we headed into the Ayer section of Devens,

Sweet Heart Memorial,
Jackson Road, 
42.54750928575126, -71.6085550605584

passing through 

Grady Research Building,
323 West Main Street 

to Shirley,

West Main Street Dam, 
Walker Road, 42.55227139782069, -71.61989892422761

where I tried to check out the supposed water body at the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge section here, but I apparently ventured onto private property instead. I might come back here to find the water body here again when the trails are more established here.

From here, I headed back into Harvard to hike at the Old Mill Road area, where the path I took to get to the beaver pond here is shown below in blue.

Pretty nice view of the pond here.

At this point, I decided to call it a day, heading into Ayer to get a Thai Green Tea 

and a Strawberry Glazed Donut

From Ruby Donut. Nothing special though. 

While still here, I also got a Hot Pastrami Sub from Devens Pizza and Deli nearby.

Once again, nothing special here.

At least I had a good day of hiking today.

January 23rd 2018: Driving Around in Freezing Rain

I ventured out today in the freezing rain to the town of Leominster,

Fire Department

Johnny Ro Veterans Memorial Park,
720 Mechanic Street

getting breakfast from Tim's Diner

in the form of a Ham Egg and Cheese Sandwich.

Filling, but nothing special.

Later in the day, I headed out to Harvard to check out the Fort Devens Museum, located on the third floor of 94 Jackson Street. Hard to find, and small.

From here, I headed into Ayer,

Learning Express

getting a Vanilla Cupcake from Capri Bakery, a hole in the wall place in the downtown area.

A little too sweet in my opinion. With that, I headed back for the day. Glad I did not encounter any black ice while driving.

September 29th 2017: Food from Burlington, Ayer and Worcester

We started out today in Burlington, getting a Happy Bear (red bean paste, Wheat flour,  Water, eggs, Sugar, milk, butter, chocolate) and Milky Bread (Wheat flour, Lemon juice, Sugar, corn starch, Dried egg white, soy protein, whole egg, Butter)

From Tous les Jours, both of which were pretty good as always.

From here it was on to lunch at Woo Jung,  a small Korean restaurant In the town of Ayer.

We got the Yook Ke Jang (Spicy pork soup with beef, vegetables, clear noodles)

and the Bi Bim Bab made with Fried Rice (Fried rice topped with beef, egg and vegetables).

Pretty authentic stuff.  Will definitely come back again if I am in the area.

Dinner was at Sonoma, a new restaurant that has opened in place of Ceres Bistro in Worcester, which I have been to several times in the past. Apparently, this restaurant is originally from Princeton, which I visited a long time ago.

Excited for our meal, we got the Bacon Wrapped Dates, which were complimentary,

the Asian Chicken and Foie Gras Dim Sum Dumplings (sauternes shiitake broth, sriracha ponzu),

the Peppercorn Crusted Loin of Ostrich (crostini, smoked gouda, roasted shallot demi, horseradish cream),

and the Grilled Breast of Duckling (Massachusetts maple demi, sweet potato puree, garlic spinach).

Amazing meal, definitely much better than Ceres. Will be back again!

April 30th 2015: Dinner at Markoh's on Main, Ayer

I had to go collect the jacket I left behind in Groton yesterday, so I decided to have dinner nearby at Markoh's on Main in Ayer. This place is affiliated with Lucia's Tavola, which I went to a few weeks back. Not as nice looking though, and nothing much interesting on the menu either.

With my deal, I got the Tips and Scallops (Seared Sea Scallops and grilled tenderloin tips, garlic mashed potatoes and Mushroom brandy demi glacé) for my main course,

and the Cenci (Fried Italian sweet pastry drizzled with local honey and dusted with powdered sugar) For dessert.

The beef and scallops were just so-so. The dessert itself was much larger than I thought it would be, and I only ate less than half of it before I decided I had enough. Not bad though, crispy with honey sweetness.

Overall, Lucia's is still much better.