July 5th 2013: Surfing and Mini Speedboats

Today, before I headed to Narragansett, RI for my surfing lesson, I went to the town of Attleborough first for some breakfast. I was hoping to use my Groupon at Cafe Romano in town, but as it turned out, they were closed for the Independence Day holidays, so I ended up going to Morin's Hometown Bar and Grille instead.

A nondescript bar-restaurant, they were few people this time of the morning, so I quickly got down to ordering a Hot Chocolate,

and the Portuguese French Toast (Portuguese Sweet Bread with cinnamon egg batter and grilled to golden brown).

Both dishes weren't too bad, although I do not like cinnamon much, but the toast did not have much of its taste.

From here, I spent a little time checking out a few places in town

Larson Senior Center,

25 South Main Street

Centenary United Methodist Church

Attleborough Public Library

Ezekiel Bates Lodge

Attleborough Court House

All Saints Episcopal Church

St. John the Evangelist Church

Old Attleborough High School,

135 County Street

Candleberry Chapel

before heading out to Narragansett, RI.

I had an appointment to learn surfing at the Narragansett Beach in Narragansett RI with Narragansett Surf and Skate. When I finally arrived, I was told that the shop itself was far from the beach, and that I was to meet my instructor at the beach instead. I was a little early, so after finding a free parking spot, I walked around the beach area for a bit to take pictures of the beautiful beach,

the Narragansett Towers

and other monuments in the area.

Canonchet Memorial Park,

Ocean Road and Beach Street

Village Inn Hotel

Memorial Square

Casino Courtyard,

Kingstown Road and Ocean Road

Lila Delman Real Estate

Coast Guard House

I did not step onto the beach itself, however, as there is a fee to use it.

Finally, it was time for my lesson. After putting on my wetsuit, I carried my board somewhat awkwardly down to the beach as it was the largest my instructor provided to give me extra stability, and my hands were not long enough to stretch out and hold its entire width. I apparently could choose not to pay the beach fee as I was taking surfing lessons, which I did happily. 

While still on the beach, I learned how to lay face down on the board in the correct position for maximum balance, and to paddle to go forward or change directions, much like doing so in a kayak, except with hands instead of oars. Here I also learned how to get to a standing position to ride the waves that came along.

Finally it was time to head into the water to put what I had learnt into practice. The water was freezing, although after a while of surfing, I did not feel it as much any more. It was also good that the water was shallow here, although it was rocky at some parts and hurt the soles of my feet when I accidentally trudged upon them. Paddling in the water wasn't too bad an ordeal, although in order to see the waves coming, I had to be parallel to the beach and the waves, and once I saw a wave coming in the distance, I was to change directions quickly to face the beach, and paddle forward to match my speed to that of the wave, and when the wave finally caught me and sent me forward, I was to stand up and ride the wave back to the beach. 

The last and most important part, was something I found really hard to do.

I kept falling off my board at first (thank goodness for the shallow water), but after getting the hang of it, I managed to balance myself while standing, but had a hard time letting go of the board with my hands. By the end of the lesson, I managed to stand up completely, but my feet were still too close together.

Oh well, next time then. 

After a fun time of learning how to surf, I headed all the way back to the North End area in Boston for an Italian lunch at Ristorante Villa Francesca. The decor is pretty nice in itself, 

while the food I got namely the Mozzarella Corozza, an appetizer,

and the Affogato (Vanilla Ice Cream drowned in Expresso Coffee) for dessert,

were excellent as well.

Another good Italian restaurant in the North End.

While waiting for my mini-speedboat ride with Boston Harbor Mini Speedboats to start, I decided to walk around, visiting several fountains in the area,

Canal Fountain, North End Parks

Millenium Bostonian Hotel

Rings Fountain

I was still hungry, so I decided to check out Lanta Asian Cuisine, a small hole in the wall place in the Financial District area, where I got the Crazy Rolls (Shrimp, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, basil leaves and rice vermicelli rolled up in soft spring roll skin then fried in tempura style topped with peanut sauce) and a Thai Iced Tea, which were not too bad but nothing special.

Finally, it was time to try driving a speedboat for the first time. After meeting up with my friend, we headed to the small boathouse located at the India Wharf Marina, where after signing waivers, it was time to get into our boats.

The boat controls were pretty simple, with a steering wheel for direction control,

and a gearbox to control how fast forward or in reverse I could go, with Neutral in the center to stop.

When we were ready, we slowly headed out toward the Fort Point Channel in a straight line as we were within the no-wake zone in the Boston Harbor, so we could not go too fast.

While here, we managed to catch sight of the Northern Avenue Bridge being turned to allow a boat through.

From here, we headed out to open water, passing by a green buoy that indicated the end of the no wake zone, upon which we were allowed to go full throttle.

The feeling of going full speed in a speedboat was extremely exhilarating for my friend and I, although after being airborne at times, landing back on the water surface was like landing on a hard flat surface, and at times it felt like the boat would get tipped over by the waves. My friend got scared and I had to brake often to calm things down a little, especially when other speedboats were nearby, before resuming again. We headed all the way to the JFK Library and Museum before heading back, passing by a monument beside the Hyatt Boston Harbor.

Monument,

~101 Harborside Drive

After finally arriving back at the starting point, my friend and I headed to dinner at Legal Seafoods Long Wharf nearby.

We got a whole series of appetizers, namely the Gazpacho for soup,

a dozen Glidden Point Oysters,

the Smoked Salmon (served chilled with homemade toasted brioche),

the Blackened Raw Tuna* “Sashimi” (pan seared and sliced with sesame chili vinaigrette, seaweed salad and wasabi),

on top of getting the Sorbet and Fruit (blood orange sorbet, mixed berries, peach mango syrup, almond cookie) for dessert.

Of all the dishes, only the Gazpacho was a little not to my taste, mainly because of all the onions and peppers in it which I am not a fan of, otherwise it was a delicious meal, but thankfully not filling as I had another dinner to go to.

After bidding my friend farewell for the day, I went to meet my other group of friends, whereupon we decided to go to the first open restaurant we came upon, which happened to be Kayuga, which I have been to in the past.

I got the Sansai Udon (Thick wheat noodles in soup with mountain vegetables and seaweed),

while my friends got the Haidupbab (Slices of raw fish with fresh vegetable),

the Ikura Sake Don (Salmon roe and sliced salmon over a bed of seasoned rice),

the College Maki (Crab salad, cucumber, and tempura flake with torched salmon, spicy mayo, and teriyaki sauce covering) and the Sake (salmon) Roll.

I actually liked all the dishes, although my friends felt the meat wasn't as fresh and so were disappointed. I guess my standards of food quality aren't that high after all. 

With that, I finally headed back to my friend's place to crash for the night, with a day of hiking to look forward to tomorrow.