My friend Julia was in town this weekend, and I wanted to post about some of the touristy things we did. Here is a short list of our activities.

1. Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). This is in a cute, modern building in the Waterfront District a short hop from downtown. They have a four story building, but only one of those stories is galleries. One is closed to the public, a third screens (art) films, and the bottom story is the gift shop and cafe (museum necessities!).

We enjoyed one exhibit a lot – the one from their permanent collection – and the rotating exhibit less so. I know art is a personal choice, so I won’t bother you with the details, however I thought the museum was really world-class quality. Definitely will visit again when the exhibition rotates.

2. Harpoon Brewery Tour. A little more my speed. Not in the goofy frat boy way that the tour guide means it, but in the fun, bite-sized educational, beer tasting and open bar way. This is my second time taking this tour (I think last year I also went on Super Bowl weekend!), and it continually increases my respect for Harpoon Beer. They just make good beer, and a lot of their brews are hard to find – if you haven’t sampled some or all, definitely go here to discover new and delicious flavors to seek out. Also, they have a rotating “100 Cask” series which this time was “Maple Syrup Ale” (not gross – I bought some) and last time was oyster flavored (sounds intriguing, but not my diet). Also, they sell growlers (64 ounces of beer straight off the keg and into the kind of jar that holds moonshine in cartoons) of all their beers.

3. Freedom Trail. Boston is “America’s Walking City,” and whoever decides these things is right. My impression is that the Freedom trail is a really nicely sized walk – I think it’s 5 miles and took us about two and a half hours to do, without stopping at the museums, but getting some food at Quincy Market). It is also very well spaced, so you walk a few hundred yards before getting to the next stop, with lots to occupy the eye and mind in between. Highly recommend King’s Church and Old North Church – I have never seen others like them. Minus is that if you continue to Charlestown, you have to figure out how to get back (we walked to the Bunker Hill T Stop, which is a half a mile north and west of the Bunker Hill Monument). Be aware that the Bunker Hill monument steps close when there’s ice, which we had. May have to go up that. I like observatories.

4. Harvard Museum of Natural History. They seem to have either killed or dug up at least one of everything on earth: there are so many stuffed animals here you feel like Charles Darwin. I learned that ungulates are animals which walk on a small number of enlarged toes (horses, camels, elephants, etc.). I then proceeded to point out every ungulate in the museum. There are other parts of this museum, including the glass flowers (they look like real flowers–really real, actually–but are glass!), a cool gem collection, and some other more “modern” and educational exhibits. I still haven’t explored the Peabody (the Anthropology half of the museum), so this needs yet another visit.

5. New England Aquarium. It’s an aquarium, so it’s pretty cool. Since I went here right after the Natural History Museum, it was funny to see the stuffed animals swimming around. The penguins were pretty lethargic, having been fed when we got there late, and then falling asleep by the time the aquarium closed. Lots of cool fish to see in the gigantic tank. An octopus apparently so smart (according to the young man shooing us out of the building), that it would sneak out of its tank and eat the fish in the neighboring tank at night. Again, didn’t have enough time here, so all the side tanks were neglected. Penguins are cute.

It turns out there’s a lot to see in Boston. You really could spend quite a few days here just hitting the tourist things (and it’s winter, so I’m not counting the sweet outdoor activities Boston has to offer). So, my friends, next time you visit, give yourself two weeks and lots of advanced notice so we can hang out.

A few of my activities in the last eight months:

• Full time bike commuting. I can’t say it’s 100% figured out, but I’m pretty far along. While I have a gym membership to change/shower, I have rarely used it the last few months; I now wear my office pants, and just throw on the shirt when I get there. Sweat isn’t a problem (a big one anyway, even in the high humidity and warmth of the heat waves), as I just ride slowly. I put my gear in a bag and the bag on a rack, so there’s no gross sweaty patch on my back. Leave the heavy lock on a rack at the destination. This also includes doing everything by bike, challenges be damned: just strap the thing to the bike rack. Just today, I moved a bike (!) on my rack, which was surprisingly not so challenging (definitely use a front rack only; probably best to use zip ties, not bungees next time…). I wish someone had taken a picture so I could send it to CETMA.
• Volunteering. I have been putting in regular hours with Bikes Not Bombs on Wednesdays for their volunteer night: stripping parts off donated bikes or flattening bikes for shipping. I have a mental block against sorting small parts, so I now avoid it at all costs. Also, yesterday I went to do mechanic work for Boston Cyclists Union, mostly fixing brakes and shifting issues on a street corner. Finally, I am getting involved in bike advocacy: I have been attending Livable Streets advocacy meetings to get more infrastructure, the Somerville Bike Committee (what they do, I’m still working on figuring out… no offense guys), and also looking forward to doing some Boston Cyclists Union stuff as well. I especially like the approach of the latter, because it is organizing the public to push for the infrastructure, versus working political channels to sneak it in (bureaucrats don’t like doing the right thing when it’s more work).
• Bike work. I’ve got a reputation among my friends as a mechanic, so I’ve been helping people get set up with bikes and the associated gear. Rachel got me a stand, so now I can do this stuff in a relaxed way; my mom got me a truing stand and a wheel to build. Now I’m considering whether to get the rest of the bike toolkit (crank puller, lockring tool, chain while, headset tools. There’s not much else I don’t have now.)
• Expeditions. Yes, of course. There’s been a ton of plain ole riding. We biked to Ipswitch; a few trips to Walden Pond, Bedford, etc.; JP; Roslindale; Newton. I’ve been less inclined to bike destinations lately because I get so much riding in just by getting around, and Boston doesn’t have a great trail system. A few attempts to go to Central MA and camp fell through (rain and illness). Hopefully I’ll do either the NYC Century, the Hub on Wheels, or both, this year. I also discovered that cold weather is OK for shorter rides (getting around), but zero-percent fun in blustery wind and frigid cold.

The future hopefully holds much more biking in store: stay tuned.

• Start at Central Park north. Bike west to Riverside, then south along 11th Avenue, 9th Avenue, and on over the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Bike West, South and East to Prospect Park. This was the first rest stop (15 miles).
• Next, we went west through Sunset Park, and then east and south through Bay Ridge (along the Belt Parkway), Sheepshead Bay and on to Marine Park, which was the second rest stop (30 miles).
• We went south over the Gil Hodges Bridge into Far Rockaway, and then north again over the Cross Bay Bridge. We continued in a pretty straight shot all the way up to Kissena Park and the Velodrome in Queens. This had the 3rd rest stop (60 miles).
• We hooked east into Queens through Cunningham park (a little path through the woods!) and then west again along Jamaica Bay and the Grand Central Parkway (we were passing all the cars stuck in traffic), and then past La Guardia airport and on to Astoria Park. The fourth rest stop was there (80 miles).
• Finally, we went over the Triborough bridge. This was a huge bottleneck because every route, all 5000 people, went over the bridge, and it has a half-dozen stairs on the bridge itself. We got off the bridge and I got a flat. It took 45 minutes and 3 tubes to fix it.
• Back on the road, we did the last loop through the South Bronx, east to Soundview Park, then a quick north and west shot adjacent to the Bronx Park (past the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Gardens), and then into Van Cortlandt Park. The last rest stop was here (mile 96).
• Finally, we went south through Manhattan over the Broadway Bridge and then through the Harlem River path and along streets back to the starting point. We were welcomed back by cheering women holding signs (mile 104).

I had been really anxious about the ride, since, as faithful readers will know, I had only done 65 miles prior. Furthermore, I had anxiety about my bike, since my choices were between the much lighter fixed gear I have been riding exclusively for months, or the much heavier 10-speed. My decision was clinched when I said, “the fixed gear hurts when I start and stop a lot and on hills.” Chris said, “You’re going to feel a heavy bike on hills and when you have to start a lot.” So, I did it fixed. I had to draft Chris a bunch, particularly along the water when we were going up hills with a headwind. However, my biggest problems from the training, fatigue and knee pain, did not come to pass; I could rest during while drafting, took more breaks, ate a ton at each stop, and drank much more water (actually sports drink) than usual.

Quite fun: two days hence, the only memories I have of it are good ones. Next year in Jerusalem!

My original plan was to go out on route 28 south to Bridgewater, make a right on route 104, and come back on route 138. Simple, right? Read the last sentence of the last paragraph. As soon as I got to Roxbury, I made a wrong turn down Washington Street, which took my right through Jamaica Plain (I didn’t object when I realized my error, because I was curious to experience the ride I had done earlier in the season). I figured as well that I could rejoin one of my two routes, which I managed to do somewhere south of Readville by just following the road to the Neponset Valley Parkway and then to Blue Hill Ave. From there it was a terribly boring straight shot south through various suburban towns. This route would have been awful were it not for the fact that I did the ride on Labor Day – it is your typical suburban speedway, main arterial. On a fixed gear, this was a somewhat demanding route of rolling hills, but certainly not as bad as the western route in Concord and Carlisle I am used to (although much longer!)

Eventually, I started seeing east-west roads with names I kind of recognized. I was feeling a little tired in the legs at this point, as I was approaching 2 hours without a break. Eager to get to my halfway point of Bridgewater, and not wanting to miss my turn because of fatigue, I saw route 106 (not 104!), which goes to West Bridgewater, and took it. I wasn’t quite sure of the geography, and I couldn’t recall whether I was supposed to cross I-495 (I had begun to see signs for it), so it seemed completely plausible. I was wrong; during a later break I talked to my sister in New York, and she located route 104, which did indeed exist. I see I cut out 8 miles from the route with this mistake, although looking more closely at the map, my devotion to route 104 would have probably led me far, far astray, since 104 does not meet 138. (If you’re following at home, look up Bridgewater, MA or Taunton, MA for what I mean.)

On route 106, I stopped at Montreal French Fries (at 10 am on Labor Day). It said open, but the proprietor had no real interest in serving me. I really just wanted him to fill my water bottle, but I bought a pickle and ended up getting no water. I rode on.

I made a left at West Bridgwater onto route 28 to head back home. This took my through the depressed-looking town of Brockton. Eventually, feeling crummy about shortening my ride (it was quite obvious when I hit 28 that this was not the correct way, but I didn’t want to ride south to Bridgewater and back just to say I had done it), I took a detour on route 37 to go to Braintree.

Continuing my penance, I decided I wanted to go down to the water, so I kept going east and north to reach the coast. This took me through a massive traffic circle and almost onto route 3 (a freeway!), but I persevered and eventually found my way to Bridge Street and the water. However, not all was peaches and cream, because the coast here is not flat; it is coves. This means that the road goes up hills, and down hills.  I went from standing up on my seat to brake the bike, to standing up on my seat to haul up hill. Eventually, the road seemed to be meandering away and I capitulated, and headed back to Bridge Street. I declined fresh tomatoes from two adorable little girls selling them in front of their house, to a cry of “why not!”. Across the street, a scene straight out of the 1950s gave me three little kids peering, huge smiles on their faces, through a screen at the scene of the girls hawking their wares.

Bridge Street took me to an impressive bridge that rattled like crazy and went past a decommissioned World War II warship. I followed the charmingly-named Southern Artery road to Sea Street and the Wollaston Beach Reservation. I did get my beach for the second time in the weekend, and it was glorious.

Eventually, this took me to another bridge, this one somewhat less friendly that the others to which I have become accustomed; I basically ended up riding in the middle of a real highway, straight into a cloverleaf that had the ramp for I-93. After regrouping for a moment, I darted across the highway and onto Neponset and then Dorchester Ave straight into Boston, and home.

This was a hell of a ride. It got a little lonesome, but the adventure towards the end made up for all that. I knew I was getting famished, however, when I started to have an inner monologue of “all I really want now is…” followed by absurd things like “to jump in the water” or “to eat forever”, when all I really wanted was to get off the bike.

This ride was also about 65 miles (more hills, fewer stops and starts, less knee pain, faster icing of the knees), also 4.5 hours of biking, also about 14.5 mph.

• Down the Hudson Bike Path
• Over the Brooklyn Bridge
• Straight through downtown Brooklyn to 4th Avenue. At this point, I had intended to shoot over to Prospect Park, but when I got to the turning point, I remembered what a trek it was, so I just opted to ride where the getting was good.
• I turned at the Prospect Expressway. 4th Avenue took an abrupt decline in quality here, so I took this opportunity to make the left turn I had wanted to make earlier.
• I followed 20th Street and East 4th to Church, at which point I made a left and got on Ocean Parkway.
• I rode Ocean all the way to the Beach on the separate bike path. The big problem with this is the poor timing of the lights; I hit almost every single one. Furthermore, cars that don’t make it across the parkway stop right in the bike lane, so it’s got a lot of dodging. Even worse, my knees got murdered on the fixed gear from the starting and stopping. Also, the pathway gets pretty chopped up from tree roots (to the point where there is a jump somewhere around Avenue J, I think!), so it’s hazardous, even.
• I took the Boardwalk, Oriental (on a little detour), Shore, and Emmons east. This portion of the ride was the most spectacular. It was a sunny, late summer day and I was just riding right along side the beach and the ocean, with a cool breeze. As I felt in Red Hook, this was a more bucolic corner of the city, with beach bums you might find in California.
• Right before the Belt Parkway, a separated bike path begins at Brigham Street. I followed this along the highway to Flatbush Avenue and the Marine Parkway Bridge.
• Off the bridge, I went right to get to the western tip of Far Rockaway, Breezy Point. I ate lunch at a coffee shop once I got into the little town of Breezy Point.
• I rode back east again after lunch and came over the Cross Bay Bridge. On the right, I watched a seemingly tiny A train (?) of 4 cars shuttle over its own dedicated bridge across the bay. Again, quite a beautiful sight.
• Once on the other side of the bridge, there is a bike lane, and about halfway across the island (isthmus?), a separated bike lane starts on the western side of the street.
• Over another bridge. I went on the west side on the sidewalk, but I would recommend crossing back over and going on the bike lane in the street. On the sidewalks there is a weird double-fence thing that I don’t understand dividing it into two narrow walking paths. The outer path was lined — this was a summer weekday — with people fishing over the edge of the bridge. The inner path was deserted and was like my own harrowing bike lane.
• Over the bridge, the traffic explodes into a huge 8- or 10-lane road. I crossed back to the correct side of the street, but my nerves were overloaded once I got past the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue. Instead, I took a left at Pitkin Avenue, along which the A and the C trains run a little further down.
• I discovered the East Brooklyn Industrial Park further down this road, and eventually Pitkin merged into East New York Avenue. After one block I made a right up the hill on Ralph Avenue and got on a dedicated bike path along Eastern Parkway. My misery from Ocean Parkway with lots of stops was repeated, but to a slightly lesser degree.
• I made it to the Grand Army Plaza. At this point, I knew I was about 12 miles from home, so I did a victory lap around Prospect Park (love it!), and then rode up Vanderbilt Avenue and Bergen Street to get back to downtown Brooklyn, over the bridge, up the West Side and home.

Total distance was about 65 miles, done in 4 1/2 hours of riding time, for an average speed of 14.5 mph. I’ll see a lot of this again (or at least the going-out part) when I do the Century ride on Sunday.

1. The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail was beautiful. It runs along the water, not very close to the road, not many road crossings. My only wish was that it had a swimming hole, too.

2. When I got my fixed gear back last month, I just went out around Boston in any old direction. At the time, I couldn’t even find all the roads on the map. However, when I went to Jamaica Plain a few weeks ago, I was able to place everything much better. I still am not sure of the second half of the ride (starting with Stony Brook and going until Boston College), but here’s the route anyway (with notes to jog my memory). It was hot. It was on big roads. There isn’t much to recommend it; I probably should have stuck with my original plan to go on Jamaica Way.

3. This isn’t a single route, I just wanted to reflect on how lovely it is to ride around Cambridge and Boston, especially late at night. At least half a dozen times I have taken the bike out after midnight and ridden the nearly empty streets of Cambridge and of Boston. As much as I don’t like nighttime activities in general, these have a special charm; after a certain hour, you get to see such interesting characters with their guard down. Some favorite roads and places are Broadway and Cambridge Street, Cambridgeport (which always confuses me) and Downtown and the Financial District.  For a while, Beacon Street just out of Inman Square was cursed; before my bike got its spiffy upgrades, I consistently lost my chain at the top of the hill there. During the daytime, I am a fan of the Somerville Community Path east of Davis Square, which is the extension of the Minuteman Route.

This month, I have been consistently taking my bike from my apartment near Harvard Square to Porter Square, taking the commuter rail to Concord, and riding the back roads (Concord Center-Lowell Road-Barretts Mill Road-Strawberry Hill Road-Great Road) to work. I do the exact same route back. The route going west is mostly uphill, which flattens out a quarter mile before Pope road, and then has a big downhill before Great Road. The reverse direction is uphill at the beginning and then past Pope road, almost all downhill.

I did that on Tuesday going into work, but I was feeling gloomy that day and left early enough to catch the 5:23 train back to Concord. Once I went past the Colonial Inn, however, I continued around the traffic circle and traveled up route 62 toward Bedford. I had done this part of the trip in reverse when I went to Walden Pond. The route is quite pleasant; the traffic is not too fast, the shoulder is just wide enough, and the homes are always interesting. Right on McMahon, and then straight into the Minuteman Bikeway, and home. 1 hour, 40 minutes or so from North Acton to Harvard Square.

On Friday, I missed the 7:37 train and didn’t feel like waiting for the 8:27 train; based on my Tuesday trip, I figured I could leave right then and tie the train, but having had a sweet morning bike ride. So that’s what I did. However, this time, I went through Carlisle by taking route 225 west. The correct route goes south on Concord Rd from downtown Carlisle, and right on South Rd, which connects to Pope Road and then Strawberry Hill Road. Instead, I stuck on Concord Rd, which turns into Lowell Road (gosh, where have I heard of that before?) and took a 3-mile-or-so detour which put me back on my normal route from the train station, hills and all.

Riding on 225 was nice, but the traffic there is at the upper limit of my comfort. The shoulder is narrow in many places going west, and much narrower going east. I am told that the homes there are required to be on at least 2 acres, and it shows; the roads are under-developed, mostly shaded, and generally quite lovely.

Today I went riding out around Cambridge to improve my mental map of the place. My realization is that there are a few very old areas — Harvard, Kendal Square, Porter Square in Cambridge, Concord, Lexington, and of course Boston — with direct roads between them. The names of these roads are generally given by the larger place (at least locally), which explains the numerous Cambridge, Harvard, Concord, Lexington streets, although rarely in the place for which they’re named.

I also discovered the source of the Minuteman Bikeway. Although the maps show the starting point as Alewife Station, there is actually a pleasant extension from past Davis Square not marked there. (See also my previous post on my ride on the bikeway.)

We basically ended up taking this route almost exactly. It wasn’t our intention to go the whole way, since it had been raining and we weren’t optimistic about the weather keeping up. As a result, I didn’t pack anything to eat or drink (which I would have, if we planned on the full route). Nor did I wear a rain coat for reasons not quite clear, but my companion had a spare which worked perfectly. Nor did we study the route carefully, since the plan was to go out on the Minuteman Trail and come back once the weather started to decline.

But the weather didn’t decline, and so when we made it to Bedford, we decided to forge ahead to Walden Pond, our original destination. There is a bike shop right at the end of the trail, and the man there gave us two alternative routes. The first took us directly to Concord Town Center and then a short hop to Walden Pond. The latter, “more scenic ” route, would have taken us back through Lexington Center and then (by way of Hartwell Ave, Wood St and Mass Ave) through the Minute Man Historic Park, and then through Concord Center.

Walden Pond was quite lovely, although the water was reportedly cold (I didn’t want to get soggy for the trip back, so I report from others), and there was obviously no sun.

I had only a vague sense that the route back involved Trapelo Rd – one I simply assumed, incorrectly, would meet with the road through Walden Pond. This was a poor assumption, and we ended up a few miles south of this “direct” route. Instead, a kind person told us to simply take Route 117 all the way back through Weston, Waltham, and Watertown from the West with wishes of wellness. While this got us there, the map makes it seem a little indirect. It’s also got a decent number of rolling hills.

Somewhere in Weston my companion got a flat. While she had a spare tube, it was of the variety that needs an adapter, which she lacked (as well as a pump). Luckily, after my run-in with a pothole in the Bronx last month, I had my own flat fix kit, including a spare and the compressed air. I would say she did it like a pro (except getting the tire off, which I helped with). On Memorial Drive, the tire had deflated again, and there was a clear hissing and piercing in the tire. A case for a patch kit?

It reminded me of the ride I took out to Bonnelli Park in San Dimas with some friends in college. I got a flat – competely off my radar – and a stranger used his flat kit to fix it for me (minutes before my friend Gen arrived with a spare).

Unlike the map, we took Mt. Auburn Street and not the Charles river route. That latter has separately been recommended to me, so I pass that on: you are probably going to enjoy the river route the most. The one caveat is that if the path is anything like other bike paths around here, it may be craggy and narrow. In the worst case, you can backtrack or detour and take the street. But if you’re considering the route, you should know that already.

In the end, I’m surprised we traveled only about 35 miles. I suppose the total biking time was about 4 hours, which gives you an average speed I would have expected given the terrain and the pace. But not knowing the landmarks and constantly worrying about directions and cross-streets made my perception much longer.

Some other observations. There are a lot of Lexington Roads. I feel like we passed half a dozen on the way back. Watertown has a very big Armenian Community, as we passed quite a number of Armenian businesses, including some kind of Armenian festival. The bike shop we stopped at had these laminated bike routes, which seem really handy and a nice balance between having nothing (adventure!) and having a map (tedious). I’m thinking I may look at them to get some other trip ideas.

• Most important, this is a real bike town. Unlike New York, where the bikes hide in parks, and only bike messengers, delivery boys, and the fearless/mentally unstable venture onto streets, people are going in all directions here. It may be partly a weekend thing, but it is truly much more bike friendly. Less car volume, less speed, better acclimated to cars. Fun. Apropos of my previous post, I think the way in which the streets are totally nonsense dissuades driving in Cambridge to a large degree.
• There aren’t any bke shops in Harvard Square. Why is that? Local residents (the three I polled) only directed me to ones a mile out along Broadway or Mass Ave (either direction).
• There are a damn lot of pubs.
• Memorial drive is not a good path to take; it is a narrow little sidewalk with lots of people and other bikes on it.
• There are not many interesting buildings to look at in Cambridge.

We’ll see how these observations evolve. I would like to take my bike out to work at some point (in Acton), although it is far and I don’t want to be sweaty all day.