October 4th 2014: White Water Rafting on the Dead River

After waking up in Maine, my friends and I made our way to North Country Rivers in Bingham ME, where we were to embark on a whitewater rafting trip down the Dead River. Like all the other times I have gone whitewater rafting, we had to get our wetsuits, booties, helmets, paddles and safety jackets before going onto the bus which would take us to the start point of the rafting trip in Northwest Somerset ME. We had to walk a little further to get to our rafts,

and after putting it into the water,

we were off.

The fall foliage along the river was beautiful today,

and although we got terribly wet several times today in the rapids,

I still think Penobscot was better, mainly because there were only rapids here and no major falls.

One of my friends was a first timer, so I got him to sit in front most of the trip, and he pretty much shielded me from getting wet half the time. In order to get him to go in the water, I had to go in as well,  and he ended up staying in longer than I did. I even got pushed into the river at one point by my friend.

When it was finally over, we took the bus ride back to the base, where we had a small lunch.

Even then, we were still hungry, so on our trip back, we stopped at the rest stop on I-95 exit 25 in Kennebunk ME for a quick snack,

before heading to Woburn for a late dinner at Pho 1 at 908 Main Street. The place was pretty crowded today in the rain and all, so we had to wait for a bit for our table to become available.

We were so hungry that we all ordered a bowl of noodle soup, with everyone else getting a version of the Pho Dac Biet (Beef noodle soup with sliced rare eye round, well done flank, brisket, tendon and tripe),

while I got the Hu Tieu Nam Vang hoac Hu Tieu My Tho (Seafood and pork noodle soup combining with shrimp, seafood balls, squid, fish cake and pork).

Mine was not too bad, although the beef broth was really flavorful.

On top of our soups, my friend also got the Coconut Juice with Coconut Meat

as he was feeling dehydrated,

and my other friend got the House Fried Rice (Fried rice with chicken, beef, pork, egg, onion, scallion, tomato and red bell pepper. Garnish with cucumber cilantro)

and the Duck Basil (Crispy roasted duck topped with string bean, mushroom, carrots, bamboo shoots, onion, red bell pepper and basil leaf in thai spicy basil sauce)

for everyone to share, as he said they were really good, and they actually were, the rice being really tasty, and the duck being crispy and delicious.

After dinner, I got back to my car, and decided to head to the Showcase Cinemas in town to watch "The Maze Runner" and "The Equalizer". Both shows were really good, especially with the reclining seats in the theater, much like in Braintree, but I especially liked the first movie, and look forward to watching the sequel.