June 30th 2012: Skydiving in Chatham

We had to get up early this morning to get to Chatham to skydive at Skydive Cape Cod. On the way there, we encountered a traffic jam in the town of Bourne as everyone was headed to Cape Cod to enjoy the sunny weather as well. Being bored, my friend decided to get out through the moon roof in my car and take pictures of the traffic around us, and of the Bourne Bridge on Route 28 as we passed over it and over the Cape Cod Canal.

The Cape Cod Canal

Traffic Jam

The Bourne Bridge

Crossing over into Cape Cod

We managed to reach our destination at the Chatham Municipal Airport early, and were earlier than my 3 other friends who were going to jump with me as well. After signing the waiver forms and watching an introductory video which just made us more nervous about doing the jump,we had a few complications in terms of payment  due to each of us reserving our spots individually, but thankfully it was resolved soon after. My friends all decided to get the video, with the option to get the pictures later. However, as they had only one plane and could only take 2 people up at a time, we had to wait for four hours before my friend and I could go up. I took a few pictures of the area before it was finally time.

We got ourselves suited up, and while waiting for the couple before us to land, I asked the instructors several questions like the minimum height for opening a chute (>800 feet) and how likely the parachute would not open properly, which was really unlikely as the parachute was designed to open, and there was a reserve chute to open in case something went wrong, like the instructor strapped to my back becoming incapacitated etc.

Finally it was time to to board the plane, which was really small and could barely fit the four of us in the plane, and I was cramped into the back of the plane. The flight up to 10000 feet seemed to take forever as the plane spiralled upward, but the views below were magnificent.

Finally, it was time, and the instructor strapped himself to me. The plane door opened and the air rushed in, and soon my friend was out the door and plummeting to the ground below. We maneuvered ourselves to the door, put our right feet out onto the step below, and with one push, I was suddenly airborne.

The initial feeling for the first few seconds was just a little like the falling feeling you get from riding a roller-coaster, just that it isn't as bad, although I have to admit that the thought of falling to my death did pass through my mind at this point.

Soon, I reached my terminal velocity of around 120mph, and the feeling of falling literally stopped. It was great just seeing the views below, and all too soon, the parachute was pulled, and we began our slow descent to the landing zone. The instructor must have felt that I was a little tense, so he decided to loosen my harness a little right in mid-air, which made me really scared that he might loosen too much accidentally, so I held on tightly to my harness while he did that, but thankfully he knew his stuff, and I enjoyed the rest of the journey enjoying the views.

Some views while I was in the air follow.

My Parachute

The views below

Approaching the landing zone

I was supposed to lift my legs up before the landing so my instructor could do it first, but somehow I could not due to my wearing jeans, so I ended up landing about the same time as my instructor, hitting my legs on the ground and sending a slight shock up my legs. Thankfully, it wasn't permanent and went away soon after. At least now I know what it feels like to land. More importantly, it was an awesome feeling to have accomplished something most people do not dare to do at all, and of course, surviving the experience.

My friends on the ground also took pictures of me coming down.

Finally, when we were landed, we were soon allowed to view our pictures, and they were awesome, and we just had to pay the extra $30 to get them. We were also presented with a certificate verifying that we had done our first jump.

When everyone was done, we all had to hurry off to our own events as we had not anticipated the long wait time. My friend wanted to have sushi buffet, so we decided to head to Maki Maki back in Boston.

This place is pretty new, with decent decor. When I first went up to get food, I realized the arrangement of food was almost similar to that at Minado back in Natick. However, this has much more variety than Minado in every section, with a chocolate fondue machine as well, and raw oysters and clams were free-flowing here with no restrictions on how many one could take at a time.

Chocolate Fondue machines

Cute Yogurt Cups

My Bounty of Oysters

After our enjoyable dinner which only cost less than $40, my friend had invited me to a karaoke session at Do Re Mi Karaoke nearby later that night, so we decided to go. I had a great time here, singing songs like "Come What May" from the show "Moulin Rouge". I have to say that this place is much better than Golden Leaf in Chinatown in terms of variety of songs available, and they had the most updated songs as well.

Unfortunately, we had another busy day tomorrow, so we had to leave before the night was over to head back home.

Looking forward to whale watching and F-1 racing tomorrow.

June 29th 2012: Cupcakes in Worcester and Dinner in Newton

Today during lunch, I decided to use one of my Livingsocial deals to get a dozen cupcakes from Back in the Day Pastry Shoppe at 111 Cambridge Street in Worcester. This place is a small establishment in a pretty shady area of town. The man behind the counter was pretty nice though, giving me one of every muffin and cupcake he had available to fulfill the dozen I had free with my Livingsocial deal, even including a fudge brownie. Some cupcake flavors including German chocolate, key lime and black forest, while muffins included bran and blueberry.

A dozen Cupcakes/Muffins

I decided to bring them back to the office to share with my colleagues, but before that, I visited a few places I missed out on in Worcester, including Institute Park which was under construction the last time I visited it.

First Baptist Church

Lake Quinsigamond at Lake Park,
287 Lake Avenue

Institute Park

Our Lady of Czestochowa

After work, I had to pick up my friend from South Station in Boston, so I decided to have dinner with my friend to while away the time, choosing to use my Livingsocial deal at 51 Lincoln in Newton. As with all high class restaurants which use their addresses as their names (for lack of creativity in names), the place was well decorated, especially the private room we were shown into, and the food was exceptional as well.

The starters of cornbread, onion foccaccia and French baguette went well with the dips of flavored butter and tomato chilli jam, which my friend thought was so good that she even bought a pint of it to bring home.

Cornbread, Onion Foccacia
with Tomato Chilli Jam and Flavored Butter

For food, we got the Pan Seared Watermelon Steak and Asian Style Lamb and Duck Terrine appetizers, and the Butter Caramelized Local Diver Scallops for the entree.

Asian Style Lamb and Duck Terrine

Pan Seared Watermelon Steak

Butter Caramelized Local Diver Scallops

The watermelon steak came with baba ghanoush, french feta, olive oil and a hand rolled sesame cracker, and wass textured and tasted just like a regular steak, which was simply awesome. The Terrine tasted a little weird, but went well after the smashed horseradish was added. The scallops was a small serving, but exquisite as well, with a sauce of mango emulsion and potato puree, with scarlet frisee and pistachio salad on the side.

For dessert, my friend decided to get the tamarind sorbet. I have to say it was a little sour, but a good transition of flavor from sour to sweet, which was overall quite a nice feeling.

After dinner, I dropped my friend off at home, and still having time to kill, I decided to head down to the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center to try to catch glimpses of the tall ships arriving to participate in the Harborfest 2012, but apparently they would only arrive tomorrow, but I still had a nice walk around the World Trade Center, and managed to take a picture of a lighted tall ship across from the place.

World Trade Center at night

Lighted tall ship

With that, I headed to South Station to wait for my friend, and when he arrived we head back home in preparation for skydiving tomorrow.

June 28th 2012: Dinner at Asgard Irish Pub & Restaurant, Cambridge

Today after work, I had a meetup event at the Asgard Irish Pub and Restaurant in Cambridge. There was some time before the event, so I decided to visit Seven Hills Park in Somerville, a small park behind Davis Square T-Station, unique in that it has mime monuments and towers dedicated to the seven hills of Somerville, with interesting symbols atop each one, like a fish for Clarendon Hill and a cow for Spring Hill.

Seven Hills Park

Ploughed Hill

Clarendon Hill

Mime Statues

Winter Hill (left) and Spring Hill (right)

On the way to the restaurant on Massachusetts Avenue, I managed to take a decent picture of the Harvard Epworth United Methodist Church.

The meetup event was actually pretty fun, being able to socialize with people I never met before, in a bar restaurant located near Toscanini's, the famous ice cream place. Appetizers were ordered for the table, like the Loaded Nachos, Truffle Tots and Chicken Avocado Quesadilla, which were all pretty good, but as they were all being shared, and I was hungry, I decided to get a Shepherd's Pie for myself.

Shepherd's Pie

It was really good, and interesting as it had no crust. As it turned out, the event was sponsored by Mobinett, so apparently the food was all accounted for. I felt a little bad as I had ordered my own food, but apparently the CEO himself, who I had been talking to half the time, was absolutely fine about it.

Thankfully, when I got back to my semi-illegally parked car, no ticket was on the windshield. With that, another day of trying out a new restaurant was over.