Showing posts with label Berlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berlin. Show all posts

Monday, August 19, 2013

August 19th 2013: Dinner at Sofia Ristorante, Hudson

Today after work, I decided to use my coupon at Sofia Ristorante, a small town Italian restaurant located in the Hudson town center. Before that, I went into Boylston for a hike at the Hillside Trail Network, located at Elmwood Place near Main Street. The path I took to find Flagg Pond here by walking on the path behind the football field here, which had many kids training today, is shown below in pink.

The pond itself was nothing much to look at though.
Flagg Pond
Other places I visited in Boylston follow.
Boylston Historical Society
Rocky Pond,
Boulder Way and Rocky Pond Road
From here, I headed into the town of Berlin to visit the Fishing Derby Pond at Berlin Memorial School, which was nothing much either.
Northborough was next.
Bartlett Pond from Watson Park,
41 Lyman Street
Smith Pond, ~75 Otis Street
My last stop was at the Tyler Dam at 193 Robin Hill Street in Marlborough.
From here, I headed into Hudson for dinner. The restaurant itself had some interesting decor,
but it was pretty empty tonight, and the Beef Fagottini I got, which was stuffed with parma ham and cheese,

 was too salty, although I still managed to eat all of it. Not a place I will come back to.

Recommended Places to Visit: Berlin

Recreation
Water Bodies
Wheeler Pond
Pleasant Street near Alden Drive

Fishing Derby Pond
34 South Street

Hiking
Lester Ross Flood Control Project
~90 Linden Street

Brewer Brook Conservation Area
Central Street and Pleasant Street

Gates Pond Reservoir
End of Taylor Road


Architecture
Places of Worship

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

August 7th 2013: Dinner at Rail Trail Flatbread Company, Hudson

Today after work, I had a meetup dinner at Rail Trail Flatbread Company in the town of Hudson. Before that, I passed through Shrewsbury,
Northborough Reservoir,
170 Reservoir Street
I decided to do a short hike at Edmund Hill, the parking area located at the Northborough Senior Center.
Northborough Senior Center
The path I took while here to try to find the pond here is shown below in pink.
I initially was a little lost, realizing only a little later that I had already passed the pond, which was actually right behind the senior center, and a pretty decent pond at that.








It was then on to Wheeler Pond on Pleasant Street near Alden Drive in the town of Berlin

before finally heading into Hudson for dinner. The pizza place itself was pretty full of people, but even then I could not find my meetup group as they were seated in another section of the restaurant, away from the giant oven in front.
For food, I decided to try a flatbread pizza, with half being Spiced Pear (bottom, Country Sweet Sauce, Cheese Blend, Pear, Chinese Five Spice, Blue Cheese, Berries) and the other half being Cubano (dijon cream, cheese blend, pork carnitas, ham, swiss, pickles, onions, grape tomatoes, arugula), while my friend had hers half Gorg and Squash (top, Garlic base, cheese blend, gorgonzola, butternut squash, blonde and black raisins) and half BLT (bottom, garlic base, provolone cheese, bacon, sweet corn, arugula, grape tomatoes, avocado lime sour cream). I also tried a piece of the Steak and Cheese (garlic base, shaved steak, banana peppers, caramelized onions, american cheese).
Spiced Pear (bottom) and Cubano (top)
Gorg and Squash (left) and BLT (right)











Steak and Cheese
All the different pizzas were actually really good, with all the ingredients going really well together, especially the Cubano, Spiced Pear, Gorg and Squash and BLT. The Pear and the Squash ones were sweet but blended well with the saltiness of it. Simply excellent. A definite recommend from me for this place.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

February 13th 2013: The Harlem Globetrotters at Tsongas Center, Lowell

Today, I was forced to take the day off from work as I had a doctor's appointment in the morning in Lexington, and tickets to go watch the Harlem Globetrotters at the Tsongas Center in Lowell later this evening.

I decided not to waste the day away, waking up early and passing through several towns on my way to Lexington, including Berlin,
St. Joseph the Good Provider Church,
52 West Street
Bolton,

First Parish of Bolton










Stow, 
St. Isidore Church
The Center School
The Stowaway Inn
Maynard,
Maynard Town Hall, 195 Main Street
Union Congregational Church









Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church


Charles A Welch Lodge, 100 Main Street
Mission Evangelical Congregational Church










and Sudbury.
St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church













After my doctor's appointment in Lexington, I did some sightseeing in town before heading to Arlington to have lunch at the Blue Ribbon BBQ.
Pilgrim Congregational Church
Countryside Bible Chapel








Lexington United Methodist Church


St. Paul Evangelical Church
Trinity Covenant Church










Blue Ribbon BBQ a typical looking BBQ place, though more like a takeout than a sit-in place. Having $15 to spend, I decided to get the Trio Platter with Pulled Pork, Pork Ribs and Beef Brisket, and poured samples of every sauce available to try.
The Sauces
Trio Platter











The meat was actually really fresh and good, with the ribs just falling off the bone easily. Some of the sauces were a little too spicy for me though.

After my lunch I resumed my sightseeing, passing through Winchester,
First Church of Christ, Scientist
and Stoneham.
All Saint's Episcopal Church
In Stoneham, after taking pictures of the places I had missed out on before, I decided to grab my pizza dinner from Amore Pizza in town, ordering the Italian Cold Cuts Pizza, consisting of provolone, hot ham, mortadella, and salami, the Spicy Sausage Roll-Up, containing garlic, pickles and tomatoes, and the Coated Skinny Fries, all to use up my $15 groupon.
Italian Cold Cuts Pizza
Coated Fries




Spicy Sausage Roll-Up
All 3 were just so-so from a typical pizzeria.

From here, I headed into Burlington,
Fellowship Bible Church
St. Mark's Episcopal Church










Wilmington,
St. Elizabeth Episcopal Chapel
Grace Chapel










Billerica,
Community Congregational Church
New Colony Baptist Church


North Billerica Baptist Church

and finally Tewksbury,
John F Ryan School
Tewksbury Public Schools
Tewksbury Police Headquarters
Tewksbury Public Library



















St. William's Church


Tewksbury Country Club







First Baptist Church

Tewksbury United Methodist Church
Lowell Assembly of God










before heading into Lowell where the Harlem Globetrotters would be playing.
First Church of Christ, Scientist,
195 Andover Street
Kittredge Park,
Chestnut Street and Park Street



St. Michael's Church









5th Street Baptist Church









Centralville United Methodist Church

Spanish Church of the Nazarene,
51 1st Street
Dick Lepine Real Estate












Finally, I decided it was too dark to take any more pictures, so I headed to the Tsongas Center within the campus of UMass Lowell to go see the Harlem Globetrotters.

I managed to find free parking nearby, thankfully, and headed into the building to collect my tickets.
Tsongas Center at night
Picture of Paul Eftemios Tsongas
Inside the Tsongas Center










The Concession Stand
When I entered the basketball arena, there was already a basketball game going on between 2 sets of kids, and they were pretty good actually (much better than me, at least).


















After the game ended, I decided to head down where they were selling Harlem Globetrotter merchandise, and I decided to get a Harlem Globetrotters Basketball for myself.
Soon after, the event started. The announcer mentioned that the trophy on the sidelines would be awarded to the winner of the game, which would have different new rules added to each quarter in the basketball game to make things more interesting.

The mascot of the team, Globie, first came out and performed a "magic" trick, where he had 4 people sit on chairs in a tight circle, and after getting them to lie down on each other's laps, he removed all the chairs until there were none left, and the people still stayed in position. Pretty cool stuff.
Globie

Starting the Magic Trick
Time to pull out the chairs










No Chairs!!
Pulling out the last chair










After that, it was time for some cool breakdancing moves, with Globie pretending he was Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson impression by Globie









Soon after, the Globetrotters themselves arrived on court and introduced themselves, doing cool basketball tricks all the while.









The game then started, with the new rule for the first quarter being that people could shoot 4-point shots from 4 spots on the court far beyond the 3 point range, and the players were actually pretty good at that. Other funny stuff included the players climbing up the nets and disrupting play and aggravating the referee.

Hanging from the basket
Doing a funny walk










Handler's Signature Pose
Free Throw Time










During timeouts, there would be entertaining performances as well, sometimes including the audience.
Girl Twirling a ball












An especially funny part was when a large balloon mascot, Big G, came out and started breakdancing.










The second quarter had every shot points doubled for the entire quarter. One player climbed up the net and stayed up there regardless of the referee asking him to come down, which was pretty hilarious.








They also tore the clothes off an opponent.

The new rule in the third quarter was to play with 2 balls for the first 2 minutes. The players were actually pretty skillful at manipulating and playing with 2 balls sometimes my themselves and scoring as well. The balls were pink to symbolize the fight against breast cancer as well.









Other antics followed.










During another break, the players got the audience to dance to the cult song YMCA.









After that, they got a kid to mimick the players' moves in order to win a T-shirt, and he actually did a really good job. The guy he was trying to mimic could not resist laughing after a while. They gave him the shirt of course.






























The game soon ended after that, the fourth quarter having 4-point shots like the first one. It was then time for autographs, which I decided to get on my ball from Globie, since that name was more significant than the players' names.
Moose Signing Autographs

Globie Signing Autographs

My Signed Ball

With that, I headed home, happy that I finally managed to get to watch the Harlem Globetrotters. They were very funny, although towards the end, their basketball antics kinda got a little old.