After waking up early today, and before picking my friend up to go jetskiing at
All Cape Boat Rentals in the town of Barnstable, I decided to do some sightseeing in the town of Chelsea,
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| Iglesia la Luz de Cristo, 738 Broadway |
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| Temple Emmanuel, 60 Tudor Street |
After picking my friend up, it was a long drive to Barnstable. We were a little early due to lighter than expected traffic, so we decided to grab some breakfast at the
Dockside Restaurant, a seaside restaurant located right next to our final destination in the Lewis Bay.
My friend got the Steak and Eggs (grilled peppers n’ onions, two eggs, home fries and toast),
while I got the Cape Cod Reuben (golden fried cod, coleslaw, Swiss cheese, Thousand Island dressing on a grilled bulky roll).
Her steak was actually really tasty, while my fish was pretty bland, even with the Thousand Island dressing.
After our breakfast, we headed out to the shack by the water where we were to rent our jetski from. After signing the various waivers and putting on life jackets, we went out to take a look at the machine and learn the controls.
Definitely much simpler than a motorbike, with start and stop buttons, an emergency stop link tied to our hands to turn off the engine if we fell off, and the accelerator being where the brake usually is.
According to the instructor, it is actually pretty hard to tip the jetski over, but it still somehow felt wobbly as I stepped onto it. After both of us were on board, our instructor then left us to our own devices for the rest of the hour, telling us to avoid shallow areas and maintaining no wake (going really slow) in between the red and green buoys until we headed out into the deepest area of Lewis Bay, where we would be free to go full throttle.
Some pictures of the area my friend took while I was driving the machine out follow.
Finally, it was time to go full speed. The feeling I got while driving really quickly was a combination of riding a
motorbike and a
speedboat, both of which I have done in the recent past, which meant it felt pretty dangerous, like we were going to flip over at any time. The feeling was still exhilirating though. Changing drivers out in the middle of the sea was also a little challenging, with the fear of tipping over due to inbalance on my mind all the time, but we managed to do it twice without issues anyway. Some pictures of the waves we made at full speed follow.
After finally heading back to our start point and giving back the jetski, it was time to hang out at the beach for a little, heading to
Kalmus Beach. While my friend basked in the sun, I walked around and took pictures for a bit,
catching sight of a jellyfish in the clear water,
and passing into Veterans Park Beach right next door as well.
At this point, my friend decided that it was too hot to stay in the sun, so I hurried back to her and we headed out to downtown Hyannis to have some lunch and ice cream at
Columbo's Cafe and Pastries, a decently decorated place.
We weren't really hungry due to our heavy breakfast earlier, so we decided to
get small portions, getting the Long Stem Artichokes (wrapped in prosciutto, served with mixed greens and grilled with balsamic reduction)
and the Chicken Walnut Ravioli (in sun dried tomato and spinach cream sauce), both of which weren't too bad.
For ice cream, we decided to head up to the counter to choose our flavors, my friend going with Mojito and I choosing Hazelnut, both of which were really tasty, especially the mojito, which I have never had before.
Overall, a decent place, although I recommend the ice cream over the food.
After lunch, we walked around town for a little bit before heading back to the Boston area to drop my friend off at home.
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| Bird Statue, 529 Main Street |
After dropping my friend off, I decided to head to the town of Melrose to do some hiking there, in the
Flagg Acres area. After parking at the designated parking area at ~315 Swains Pond Road, the path I took to explore the entire area, including the
Sea View Trails are shown below in pink.
The views of Towner's Pond were pretty good, although some parts of the trails were pretty overgrown with fallen trees and hard to traverse.
The view from the viewpoint in the Sea View Trails of the Boston skyline was pretty good as well.
I then hiked all the way to the viewpoint near Third Pond,
which was pretty good as well.
Finally, I headed into the
Mount Hood Memorial Park area, passing by First Pond
and the golf course clubhouse.
At this point, I decided to head all the way back to my car using the roads here, and drive back to the parking area to resume my exploration of Mount Hood.
After getting back to the golf course, the path I took to find the Slayton Tower is shown below in pink.
After taking in okay views of Third Pond,
I went in search of the FAA towers, heading mistakenly into the path for the 9th hole for a bit before realizing my mistake as I was getting nowhere near the towers.
Coming down the hill from the towers, I decided to take the golf cart route to Slayton Tower instead of backtracking on the pedestrian path, regretting it a little as golfers screamed "fore" as their balls came raining down from the 8th hole, which I was headed to to find the tower. The views from the base of the tower, which was closed, are pretty awesome though.
From here, I headed all the way back to my car, heading next to dinner at
Porto Bello Ristorante, a pretty decently decorated Italian restaurant in the town of Wakefield.
With my groupon, I got a decent amount of food which I was able to finish, especially beca
use it was so good, namely the Camarao A Casa (Shrimp Portuguese House Style, sautéed with a touch of piri-piri in a garlic white wine sauce) for appetizers,
the Lobster Bisque,
and the Costata Fiorentino (Grilled porterhouse steak topped with sautéed onions, portabella mushrooms, garlic and basil; served with roasted potatoes) for my main dish.
The sauce for the shrimp was really tasty, and I actually used it to make the bland soup taste much better. The steak was excellent as well, together with the mushrooms and potatoes.
Finally for dessert, after seeing the selection brought out on a platter for me, I decided to go with the Limoncello Cake, which just made up for the saltiness I had in my meal.
Overall, an excellent dining experience I won't mind having again in future.
With that, I called it a day, heading back to Boston to stay over at my friend's place before food truck stuff tomorrow.
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