June 23rd 2012: Barbecue at Arsenal Park, Watertown

Today, I helped in organizing a meetup barbecue for over 150 people at Arsenal Park in Watertown.

I started out by heading out to Wayland for breakfast at Mel's Commonwealth Cafe, where I had a Livingsocial deal. This place is actually one of the nicer breakfast places I have been to.

I got the hot chocolate and the Crabcake Benedict, having crabcakes added to regular Eggs Benedict, and was about to get the Belgian Waffle with Strawberries and Whipped Cream on top when my waitress told me to wait until I had finished my crabcakes before ordering more, thinking that I would not have the stomach for it.

Hot Chocolate

Crabcake Benedict

After enjoying my main dish, although the grits were a little bland as my waitress had warned me, I still had room, so I still got the Belgian Waffle in the end, and finished it, as expected.

With breakfast done, I headed to the town of North Attleborough to do some sightseeing before heading to Framingham to pick up my friend, who was coming for the picnic as well.

Sacred Heart Church

First Congregational Church

Hoppin Hill Reservoir, 

Hoppin Hill Avenue near Lakeview Avenue

First United Methodist Church

From here, it was time to head for my barbecue at Arsenal Park, where I was helping to set up stuff. After picking up my friend, who had bought 4 giant watermelons, while I brought charcoal and iced tea. We set up tents near the main pavilion, and started the grill going, then went to grab more ice as it ran out. People started arriving soon after, and we got into the swing of the party. When people started playing with frisbees, I heartily joined in, playing several rounds of ultimate frisbee. I'm just amazed that I did not tire out at all during the games, and even managed to catch the frisbee in a difficult situation to score the winning goal. I also tried my luck at doing the hula hoop, not doing so well there at all, and had fun watching the water balloon game, where teams of two kept passing water balloons to each other at increasing distances until they broke, which did not happen as often as expected as the balloons were not filled up enough, but eventually a winner emerged, while some losers came out totally drenched. Soon after this, it started to rain heavily though, and my friend and I decided to leave the park for good to head for dinner in Waltham at Seventy at Third.

What I id not know about this restaurant was that it is located inside the Westin Waltham Boston Hotel, and I was a little worried that we would not be allowed in as I had only shorts on, but thankfully we were. The first sight that greeted us when we entered the lobby was the great view of Cambridge Reservoir on Winter Street.

The decor in the restaurant was really fancy too.

We had a Livingsocial deal of $55 to spend, so we got right to ordering the good stuff. Unfortunately, there was nothing much on the menu, so my friend decided to get the Flame Grilled Bacon Burger, while I got something interesting, pan seared rainbow trout, which had grapefruit, cherry tomatoes, spinach, shrimp and potato wedges.

My dinner was pretty ok I guess, until I started finding bones in my fish, which just starts to kill my appetite. Apparently my friend did not really enjoy her burger either. For dessert, we decided to get the Mini Caramel Ginger Apple Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream and the Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. 

I would say that the desserts were okay, although I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in this place, thinking it would be pretty high class, but the quality of food did not match the ambience of the place. Thankfully, I came here on a deal, and I will not come back again.

With that, a fun day at the park came to an end.