August 4th 2012: Company Day at Six Flags, Agawam

This morning, even though I worked past midnight yesterday, I had to get up really early to carpool with my friends to go to Six Flags New England in Agawam, where my company was organizing an employee appreciation day, giving everyone a free pass to the theme park.

The park was opened an hour early for the company, and as we were anticipating a jam along the way due to the Great New England Air Show happening in Westover Airforce Base in Chicopee. Surprisingly, there was no jam at all and we got there without any delay. On the way there, I took some pictures of the park

Six Flags New England

Scream Tower from a distance

We wanted to ride the newest ride, Goliath, but apparently the people had only opened up the DC area for us early birds.

DC area

Goliath

My friend was afraid to ride roller coasters, so the first ride we did was the Joker's Wildcard, a merry-go-round sort of ride. As I did not want to get dizzy, I chose not to ride it, giving me an opportunity to take pictures of my colleagues I was with.

Next, we went to do the best roller coaster in the park, Bizarro. I was really apprehensive as always just before the ride, but in the end, the ride was not so bad after all. The first peak was really high, and the fall was exhilarating. The rest of the ride was really fun as well, although my friend told me I screamed like a girl. What can I say, it helps relieve the sinking feeling.

Unfortunately, that was the only fun ride in the area. While spending our time here, we did a few other rides, including Gotham City Gauntlet, a mine car sort of ride with sudden twists and turns, Catwoman's Whip, a small scale roller coaster that swung me in my seat from side to side, and Route 66, a kiddy vintage car drive, which clearly said no bumping, but I still did anyway. Thankfully it was my friend I bumped into.

Catwoman

Gotham City Gauntlet

Catwoman's Statue

My car

No bumping, yeah right...

Finally, the rest of the park opened to us.

The water park

The next ride we went to was Batman. Apparently the floor falls away, but we were all seated down and not standing, so it wasn't so frightening in the end, and the ride was actually really short as well.

The next ride we did, Mind Eraser, was actually a much better version of Batman, with much more twists and riding upside down.

Unfortunately, at the very end, the ride in front of us had someone vomit in the seats, so they had to clean it up totally before they could let us proceed to get off.

From here, we decided to go try out Goliath.

Approaching Goliath

Goliath Up Close

The line by now for the new ride was really long, but we decided from the sound of the screams that it was worth the wait. It was interesting that they had an area dedicated to people to chicken out before the ride.

When we finally got onto the ride, it was one of the most awesome rides I have had so far. The coaster first reverses up the first tower, and leaves you hanging high up in the air, looking down at the ground far below, with only the bar holding you back from oblivion.

The coaster is then released, going through a coaster like ride to head up a second tower. The coaster then moves backward. The feeling of riding backward was nothing compared to riding forward, although it ended back up at the first tower, with us facing down again. Once again, hanging up there felt like forever.

The subsequent ride back to the start was slow, but overall my best ride so far.

After the ride, we headed to our free lunch at the River's Edge Picnic Grove, passing through the Looney Tunes portion of the park.

We had to cross a bridge to get over to the picnic side, where there was a huge party going on with a buffet lunch, complete with ice cream.

After failing in putting a golf ball into a hole for a prize, we decided to go to the water park portion to cool off from the extremely hot weather we were having today.

We were forced to get lockers to put our stuff, and in order to save costs, we decided to get a family locker with a group of our friends. It was here, after finally stuffing everything into our locker we made a mistake of going separate ways from out friend who had the keys (wristband) to our locker. The second mistake I made was bringing along my waterproof camera to take pictures.

The water park was really nice, but the place was full of people.

My friends did not really want to anything intense, so we decided to do something really lazy at Adventure River, coasting with the water flow on inflatable tubes. My friend had rented a tube earlier, so he and his girlfriend were able to get ahead of the line and head down the "river".

While we waited in line, we were able to get our feet wet in the water immersed portion of the line, so I decided to try out my camera underwater by taking a picture of my foot.

When it finally came our turn to get our tubes, I realized that it was really hard to get onto the tube, with me flipping over into the water the first time I tried, bruising my elbows in the process.

While riding down the "river", my friend kept flipping me over as well, and this is where my nightmare fore the day started. On one of those friendly flips, the waterproof latch for my camera came open, and my camera became flooded with water and became non-functional.

The rest of the ride was okay, although I kept trying to revive my camera to no avail. For the rest of the day, I was unable to take pictures.

We lined up next for a tame raft ride at the Swiss Family Toboggan station. It was here that we realized that we could not get our stuff with the key man being somewhere else in the park. After our raft ride, we started our search, which was pretty much in vain. We finally ended up at the lockers. I decided to venture out and find him again, again pointless, and by the time I came back, my other friend had already asked an attendant to open the locker. After getting all my stuff back, I had to bring my friend back to my other friends, who had his stuff in another locker. This was where I made yet another mistake, choosing to stay behind while my friend made his way back to the lockers, then going after them a few minutes after. When I got back to the lockers, nobody was in sight, so I thought that everyone had already left the water park, so I left, trying to call everyone in my group, but nobody picked up, and it was right at this point that my phone ran out of battery.

Not knowing what to do, I finally decided to head back to the water park, where perhaps I would be able to find another group of friends. Thankfully, I found that my friends were actually still there, just not the ones we had carpooled with. We left the water park again, trying to find our friends with cars, with no luck again for quite a while. My friends went to do one more ride, the Kontiki, a rotating ride, while I took care of their stuff outside.

At this point, we were extremely thirsty. We were almost about to spend 4 bucks on a small bottle of water when my friend happened to walk by with a souvenir bottle that he decided to give to us as he was leaving, and we were able to refill it with water for free. What a relief it was to be able to refresh ourselves with no money spent.

With that, my friends with the car called soon after, and after they arrived, we went to do one last ride at Houdini-The Great Escape. It was a pretty mind-boggling ride situated in a house, and at some points it gave us the illusion that we were actually upside-down.

After that, feeling tired, we headed home, at which point I decided to go to the Best Buy located at the Greendale Mall in Worcester to get a new camera, hopefully on the cheap.

With my new Canon Powershot A2300, I decided to try it out by going to a new restaurant in Worcester for dinner which my friend had recommended, the One Love Cafe, a really small Jamaican restaurant on Main Street.

The lady who owned the place was really nice, making small talk and giving me great recommendations on what to get. I decided to get the Beef Short Ribs, which came with mango slices and fried plantains. The ribs had been drowned in beer then cooked, which were really good, and I really enjoyed the fried plantains too.

For dessert, I got the coconut mango cupcake, for which the frosting was delicious, although I do not really like the texture of coconut, but this dish did not have any of that at all.

With that, I headed home, very satisfied with the new camera I just bought, and with a day of fun at Six Flags.

August 3rd 2012: Cupcakes from CocoBeni Confections, Northborough

Today, I had to work late again, but in between experiments, I managed to take some time out to go home and nap a little. After my nap, I decided to reward my colleagues who had been helping me by buying some cupcakes from CocoBeni Confections in Northborough, where I had a Livingsocial deal for $20.

The shop was a typical bakery, but the cupcakes in the store looked really artistic and delicious. For $20, I got 7 cupcakes and 2 cake pops, mini balls of cakes on sticks that I have never tried before. Among the cupcakes were S'mores, blueberry vanilla, Peanut Butter cream, orange creamsicle, and even one that was Olympic themed, topped with a white chocolate coin. The Bailey Pop and the Orange cream Pops were really delicious, while I managed to taste the cream from most of the other cupcakes and the coin from the Olympic cupcake. I have to say, all the cupcakes were as good as they looked. I definitely recommend checking the bakery out.

When I was able to take a break for dinner, I went to the Vintage Grille at 346 Shrewsbury Street to check the new bar-restaurant out. The place looks pretty much the same as the former Junior's Pizza Grille did, now bedecked with all sorts of car parts to make it look like the garage it used to be in the old days. There did not seem to be anything really unique on the menu though, so I decided to get a bowl of Vintage Chilli, served with tortilla chips and topped with jalapeno peppers, which was actually pretty good.

My main dish, the Creamy Tomato Sausage Florentine, a penne pasta dish with roasted sausage, spinach, mushroom and fresh garlic in a creamy tomato sauce, was just okay though, with it being a little too sour for my liking.

Overall, I would say this is a great place to come hang out for a drink with friends, but foodwise, it's just like any other typical bar.

August 2nd 2012: My Expensive Dinner at Pepperoni Express, Shrewsbury

Today, I had to work really late, and as I had a Groupon for $30 of food at Pepperoni Express, a pizza place which has two locations in Shrewsbury and Grafton respectively. After ordering small Meat Lovers and Delhi Delight Pizzas, the Unique Pasta Alfredo, and a large Patriot Missile from the Shrewsbury location in the comfort of my office, I went down to the place along Route 9 to pick it up, only to find to my horror that my Groupon could not be used there as the they had different management from the Grafton location, where the Groupon would be valid.

Reluctantly, I parted with my $30, and brought my food which would have cost just $2 otherwise back to my office to eat.

Delhi Delight

Meat Lovers

Patriot Missile

The Unique Pasta

I have to say that the pizzas were pretty good though, while the sub and the pasta were just ok.

I have learnt my lesson however, and will mention my Groupon before ordering anything next time.

August 1st 2012: Dinner at 7 Nana, Worcester

Today, I had originally wanted to check out the new restaurant that had taken over from Junior's Pizza Grille at 346 Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, the Vintage Grille. However, I also wanted to check to see if Allgos Sweets and Drinks was still open, thinking it was a bakery or something. As it turned out, it only opened at 6pm, and as there was another new restaurant that I really wanted to try here, 7 Nana at 60 Shrewsbury Street, a branch to the restaurant in Billerica, I decided to go there instead. 

Not knowing what to expect, I was surprised by how classy this place looked when I stepped in, as can be seen from the pictures I took.

Restaurant decor

After looking at the menu and being spoilt for choice, I decided to go for the Spicy Tuna Gyoza appetizer, which was served atop guacamole and Thai mango chili aioli.

The guacamole was an interesting addition to this asian dish, made even more so with the use of spicy tuna, and overall really delicious. I decided to get the Fancy Lobster (a maki roll) as well, mainly because it said "with exotic presentation", and I was really awed by what I saw.

Placed on a bed of ice, with fruity gels surrounding the center, an entire lobster shell along with other decorations were used, although the edible stuff was just simple rolls.

To be honest, even though the presentation looked good, the rolls were just so-so, consisting of soy paper wrapped around lobster, king crab and mango with a topping of mango salsa.

My last dish was entree sized, being the Duo of Duck, consisting of Fennel Crusted Duck Breast and Crispy Duck with Red Wine Sauce, which was presented really well as well.

This time, I enjoyed the dish thoroughly, although I could not finish it.
I must say that this restaurant is now my new favorite restaurant in Worcester.

If you thought that was the end of it, there was more to come when I got home. My friend had bought 5 live lobsters to boil and eat for dinner. While waiting for the water to boil, I decided to take some pictures of one of the lobsters. I have never held a live one before, so I was a little apprehensive that it might retaliate and snip off my fingers with its claws, but thankfully it did not.

It was heart wrenching though when it came time to cook the lobsters, to see them squirming in the boiling water after they were thrown in and being slowly cooked to death.

But I still enjoyed my second steamed lobster in 4 days regardless, although I think the one I had at Fresh Catch Restaurant and Sushi Bar in Mansfield was still much better in terms of quality of meat.