4th Annual Taste of Downtown Marlborough (and 1st Annual Brewfest)

I was driving to a Diary Queen near downtown Marlborough yesternight when I saw a rather small and unimposing sign that advertized something called 4th Annual Taste of Downtown Marlborough. Yesterday was Sunday, so I thought I had just missed an interesting event. No so. This event was held this evening (Monday). It seems a little unusual to have an event like this on a Monday night (and bad timing to have it the same night as game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals in which the Bruins must win or lose completely), but it didn't seem to deter the crowds from coming.

I'm very new to the area, so this was the perfect event to see tons of restaurants in the Marlborough Olde Town area at one time, all for only $20. Overall, I think I was able to sample tastes from a couple dozen places. Some places I might come back to later this year. Other places I might not consider again. To each their own.

The 1st Annual Brewfest portion of this event cost an extra $5. There were a couple dozen beer vendors giving out 1oz samples of their offerings. Some of the beers just aren't suited to my taste. I had one that tasted like I was sucking on a 10 week old lemon, and not in a good way (if a good way could even be imagined). Other beers were good. I enjoyed some of the beers from Brooklyn Brewery. It was impressive that a New York company would show its face at a Massachusetts event.

There were lots of long lines to sample the various restaurants. Later in the evening, it was a little easier to get samples, but some places had run out by then.


There was also various live acts, ranging from the classic to the drum beat based. One rock group played Turning Japanese and then She Bop right after. I couldn't help but grin when I saw parents dancing with their kids to those particular songs. Sometimes you have to wonder if people know what those songs are supposedly about.


There are also some interesting old buildings.

It was interesting to see what this town of Marlborough has to offer. I have some ideas of which places to visit in the near future.

Ran over a bird (dang!)

Many birds have flown into the path of my car over the years, yet always seem to get out of the way. Many others have been in my path already (chillin out on the road or something), and have also flown out of my way. They generally respond quickly enough that I've rarely have to react as I drive at them. Well, that all changed on my recent cross-country trip. Easily, hundreds of birds flew into and out of the path of my car on this trip, with no incident.

One bird in Missouri, this stupid Red Winged Blackbird, did not. In fact, it flew right into my path so quickly that I could not respond in time to avoid it. Although I quickly applied my brakes, I heard it bump against some portion from under my car. I don't think I actually ran over it, per se, because I didn't see any remnant left on my car. It likely just bumped into my car, and got knocked about. I didn't see it on the road behind, so I'm guessing it was able to fly off.

Still, it was very annoying. It's bad enough having all these birds rush in front of you all the time, but actually hitting them just sucks.

Cross-country trip photo (Flickr)

Cross-country trip, a set on Flickr.

I've uploaded all of the photos (many shown here) from my recent cross-country trip to a Flickr set. There's a few of my car, and many others taken from my car. I didn't get a chance to stop at many interesting places (for various reasons discussed in earlier articles), but there are still some interesting shots. Enjoy!

Hot hot hot

There's a heat wave that covers half of the US right now. I arrived in New England just in time to catch this nice weather. Let's see if I'm still saying that tomorrow after it hits 100deg here, with high humidity. OK, enough about the weather. I think I just broke one of my unwritten rules about not talking about the weather on Its Trouble.... :)

Cross-country trip - day 6

Day 6 of my cross-country trip was marked by yet another viciously beautiful day as I drove into Massachusetts. Eastern New York is beautiful, save for a few cities here and there (which have their own charm). There are more rustic farms that might as well be from the late 19th Century, and more lush forested hills. This day was the first time on my trip where I had to pay two separate road tolls in the same day. I guess $5 (total) isn't bad for travelling a couple of hundred miles. It's certainly a better price than paying $5 to cross a 1 mile bridge over the Delta in Northern California.

I made it to my appointment in Massachusetts with 10 minutes to spare. My time estimate for the overall trip was nearly perfect. I didn't get to enjoy some of the cities as much as I had wished. Besides that, this 5 1/2 day road trip turned out to be a good experience that I'll remember very well.

Would I do a similar trip across the USA again? If I had to, yes. Next time, I may take more time to enjoy many more stops along the way.

Cross-country trip - day 5 (part 2)

Western New York state is beautiful, gorgeous and simply stunning. The forests are lush and rich in color. The lakes are serene. The farms are stereotypically and wonderfully idyllic. This was entirely unexpected by me.

The drive to Binghamton, NY was long. Getting across New York state takes as much time as any other larger state, such as Kansas (though is much more interesting than Kansas). There happened to be a festival in Binghamton on the day of my arrival, called First Friday Art Walk. The event was fairly lively with a lot of friendly people. I got a hotel (that I picked myself without the help of Expedia or that Hotwire unpublished rate thing) that was right in the middle of the downtown area action, so I was able to walk around freely without having to drive anywhere. There are a few attractions that are prolly better seen during the day, but here's a couple of late evening photos anyway (to the right).

I was at one bar where there were a bunch of locals rooting for the Braves to beat the Mets. Everyone was happy when the Braves won. Huh? Even if you are a Yankees fan, I would consider it disgraceful to pull for an Atlanta team over a local team! Oh well, I wasn't going to argue the point with anyone, especially after the Bruins lost to Vancouver a few minutes later in the Hockey finals; too even greater celebration by the locals.

The next day, as I was leaving the hotel, the bellhop thought he recognized me from a late party from the last night. Of course, I was at no such party. Though I was aware of it, I didn't crash the party. ...might've been nice to be invited to the party! Where are all these dopplegangers having my fun instead of me?!

On my way out of town, I ran across this interesting place of business (photo below). I was immediately thinking that such a place would be useful to Napoleon Dynamite.