Today, I had a Bronze Pass to go to the
Rhode Island Comic Con, held at the
Dunkin Donuts Convention Center in Providence RI. After arriving, I saw the line had already formed. Having a Bronze Pass, I thought I could bypass the line, heading all the way to the entrance past everyone else. As it turned out, the entrance for Bronze people was on the other side of the building, and I had to walk all the way back to get there. After signing in and getting my free poster,
I entered from the second floor, where the crowds were only starting to gather.
There were a few familiar vehicles on display in the outside area.
Inside the exhibition hall, there were several interesting things on display.
Of the many celebrities that were here, including the Power Rangers, the only one I could still recognise after so many years was Winston from the Ghostbusters.
It was also interesting to see a live crocodile and other reptiles inside the exhibition hall.
Other than that, the exhibition was a collection of vendors selling their wares and artists promoting their work, and of people in costumes milling around. I don't know why, but it doesn't quite appeal to me. With that, I decided to go sightsee a little in the city of Attleborough, choosing to visit the
Capron Park Zoo while it was still open. This place is pretty small,
but I was still able to take several nice pictures of the animals kept here.
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| Argentine Black and White Tegu |
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| Emu |
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| Red Kangaroos |
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| Ring Tailed Lemurs |
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| Boer Goats and Alpacas |
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| Black and White Ruffed Lemurs |
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| Indian Crested Porcupine |
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| Victoria Crowned Pigeon |
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| Purple Swamphen |
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| Red Crested Cardinal |
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| Superb Starling |
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| Agouti |
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| Fennec Fox |
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| DeBrazza's Monkey |
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| Serval |
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| Hornbills |
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| Visayan Warty Pig |
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| Red Crowned Crane |
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| Japanese Macaque |
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| Amur Leopard |
Some interesting things I saw here was a white lion,
an overprotective Southern Screamer dad who kept jumping at the screen separating me from him to protect the eggs under the mother nearby.
It was also cool to learn the differences between river and sea otters, which have different feet shapes and webbing for practical purposes, and that river otters swim belly down while sea otters swim belly up.
Heading out of the zoo, the park itself is pretty nice as well.
There was an inquisitive squirrel here who thought I had something to feed him.
From here, I visited a few places in town
This place is pretty small, and they were having a live auction later in the night, so the pieces were all arranged differently today.
From here, I headed into Norton, visiting the
Winslow Farm Wildlife Sanctuary first. This place is more a farm than a zoo, located within the wilderness
and by Meadowbrook Pond.
Other places I visited in Norton follow.
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Chartley Pond,
West Main Street and South Worcester Street
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I headed next into Easton,
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Memorial,
Depot Street and Center Street |
before heading to Canton for a meal at
Gourmet Garden, a Chinese-Japanese restaurant. The decor here was actually pretty decent for a place located within a strip mall.
W
ith my groupon, I decided to get the Grilled Chicken Satay Salad,
the Phil's Amazing Special (Tuna, Salmon, white fish, crabstick, avocado, dipped in tempura batter, fried with chef's special sauce)
and the New Wave Maki (spicy tuna inside, yellowtail, salmon, avocado outside, tempura crumb with 3 kinds of special sauce on top).
The salad was pretty terrible in terms of what I paid and what I got. The chicken was just one big cutlet, and the satay sauce was mediocre at best. The special wasn't that special either, with nothing amazing to it and the meat was all cooked and dry. Only the raw fish was really good, and probably saved the entire meal.
Overall, I'll give this small town place the benefit of the doubt, especially due to the nice decor.
From here, I headed straight to my next and last meal of the day, at the West Bridge Restaurant in Cambridge. This place is pretty modern and chic, which is usually the case for the places my friends like to go to.
We ordered a lot of appetizers as I was still very full from my previous meal.
Our starters, made of chicken skin, was very interesting in presentation and tasty. This made me look forward to the rest of the dishes we got.
The first one that arrived was the Egg in a Jar (duck egg, hen of the woods, pomme puree, crisp skin). It was pretty interestingly presented again, and to have egg with mashed potatoes was an interesting concept as well. However, it came out tasting like plain mashed potatoes and nothing special. It was still tasty though especially with the crispiness aspect to it.
The next dish was the Crispy Pig's Head (Prosciutto, cured egg, bagna cauda). We were disappointed that no head came served on a platter, but cubes of meat that seemed like pulled pork in texture in taste. A bit of a disappointment to say the least, although still not too bad.
The Schnitzel (Beef Heart, kimchi, pecan, yogurt) came next. The meat itself was a little hard, given it was made of beef heart, but overall, I like the combination of ingredients in this dish, especially the kimchi.
I could hardly see the snails in the Burgundy Snails (Salsify, yeast, mushrooms) dish, but they were there alright. I actually thought the salsify strips were actually strips of pasta, hence I was surprised at their vegetable texture and taste when I ate it.
The Oxtail and Celery Root (sunchoke, apple, pistachio) was much like the pig's head, a disappointment with no tail in sight and just balls of meat. The ingredients here did not make much sense either, although it was okay overall.
Finally our main dish, the Venison (squash, cranberry, freekeh) came. Very good presentation, and the ingredients again were exquisite, except that the meat was a little too dry for me, being a rare person and all. Overall, not too bad.
Our dessert was the Cookie a la Mode,
which was pretty good as well.
Overall, I would give this place a recommend, although I agreed with my friend that there are similar places like this in town that serve slightly better food.
With that, my day of exploring, with 2 zoos in the bag, came to an end.
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