September 6th 2013: Flyboarding on Forge Pond, Westford

Today at lunch, my colleague wanted to treat me and my boss to a meal, so we headed to the Sole Proprietor in Worcester. The place was crowded as always. For food, I decided to go with the Ginger Cream Shrimp with Apples (Shrimp pan seared with apples and chopped asparagus in a roasted garlic, ginger cream sauce. Served on steamed sushi rice), while my colleagues got Fried Gulf Shrimp (served with French Fries and Coleslaw) and the Seafood Mixed Grill (Grilled skewers of tuna, swordfish, gulf shrimp and fresh vegetables brushed with lemon herb vinaigrette, served with herbed rice pilaf).

Seafood Mixed Grill

Fried Gulf Shrimp

Ginger Cream Shrimp with Apples

The shrimp and mixed grill were both not too bad, while my dish was simply delicious. Definitely try that dish next time.

After work, I had an appointment to learn flyboarding on the Forge Pond in the town of Westford with We Deliver Watersports, one of the newest fun things to come out onto the market, whereby you strap on a board to your feet, much like snowboarding, and the board is connected to hosing that gets water pumped through it at a rate high enough to propel you out of the water and into the air, where you can hover as long as you are in the right position.

Unfortunately, I was only able to take pictures of the person doing it while I was waiting at the beach area, and none were taken of myself as I was rarely hovering in the air anyway.

I have to say, the water was really cold, and the air even colder. After putting on all the gear, life jacket and helmet, I was told to stay facing down, keeping my knees straight, and lifting my toes to get higher, while pointing them downward to go down. Doing this was pretty hard, especially keeping my legs straight. At times I was able to break my fall back into the water by diving, but most of the time, I just slammed forward or backward into it, especially once my knees bent a little. Slamming was pretty painful at times, especially when going face down into the water, while falling backwards usually dislodged my helmet and left me gasping for air. 

Thankfully, I did not waste my time here and managed to get out of the water a few times, if only for a few seconds.

Unfortunately, after my last liftoff where I was in the air for quite a bit before my knees buckled and I fell back into the water hard, I got extremely disoriented with my helmet not being in place and covering my eyes, causing my whole body to cramp up in the cold water. My instructor ended up having to drag me onto the jetski, where I could hardly move, and was in constant pain all the way back to the shore. Even after finally getting back to my car, I had to blast the hot air onto myself for several minutes before finally feeling the pain go away for good. From here, I decided to head to Comeketo, a cafeteria like small Brazilian restaurant in the town of Leominster, for dinner.

For food, I decided to get the Moqueca de Peixe com Camarão (Tilapia fillet fish stew with shrimp in a tomato coconut milk sauce. Served with rice, plantain, and house salad), which was really fresh and tasty.

The Acai in the Bowl (topped with sliced bananas and drizzled honey) which I got for dessert was pretty good too, though extremely filling and I could only finish half of it.

With that, I dragged my tired body home for the night. I wonder how I will fare at fencing tomorrow.

Recommended Places to Visit: Leominster

Recreation
Water Bodies

Bartlett Pond
Wachusett Street near Elm Street


Fall Brook Reservoir
~100 Wachusett Street

Golf

Grand View Country Club
454 Wachusett Street

Parks

Barrett Park
Chestnut Street and Barrett Parkway

Carter Park
Main Street and Summer Street

Hiking
Monoosnoc Ridge Trail
End of West Street near Route 2

Architecture

Monuments

The Living Stone Foundation
656 Wachusett Street

Tank
750 Mechanic Street

Monument Square
West Street and Main Street

Airplane
640 North Main Street

Places of Worship

St. Leo's Parish
128 Main Street

Unitarian Universalist First Church
15 West Street

First Baptist Church
23 West Street

Pilgrim Congregational Church
26 West Street

St. Anna Parish
199 Lancaster Street

St. Cecilia Church
180 Mechanic Street

Leominster Assembly of God
834 Main Street

Congregational Church of Christ
583 Main Street

Our Lady of the Lake Church
1400 Main Street

Holy Family of Nazareth Parish
750 Union Street

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
60 West Street

Chapel of All Saints
1469 Main Street

Town Facilities
City Hall
25 West Street

Public Library
30 West Street


Historical Buildings
Kendall Hall
Hamilton Street and Main Street

79 Union Street
79 Union Street

Restaurants

Tried:
Dessert
Aunty Ellen's Creative Confections
16 Central Street


Brazilian
Comeketo
285 Central Street
Recommended Dishes:
Moqueca de Peixe com Camarão
Acai in the Bowl

Japanese

Yamato Japan
975 Merriam Avenue


Italian
C and M Pizza

69 Central Street

Al Dente
23 Sack Boulevard

Recommended Dishes:
Buffalo Wings
Ravioli di Zucca

July 19th 2013: Dinner at Depot Sports Grille, Pepperell

Today after work, I decided to use one of my Groupons at Depot Sports Grille, a bar restaurant in the town of Pepperell.

Before that, I passed through the towns of Leominster,

Future Jonathan Ro Memorial Park Site,
750 Mechanic Road

Fitchburg

War Memorial,
Summer Street and Lunenburg Street

Old Summer Street Fire Station,
15 Summer Street

and Townsend.

Harbor Pond Dam,
South Street near Main Street

Old Harbor Church,
80 Main Street

Harbor Pond

The restaurant itself is pretty small, and was lacking in people on a Friday night.

For food, I got the Pulled Pork Chili for appetizers, the Smokehouse Pizza (Spicy BBQ sauce, smoked sausage, pulled pork, cheese) for my main dish, and the S'mores Calzone for dessert.

Pulled Pork Chili

Smokehouse Pizza

S'mores Calzone

The chili was mostly pulled pork, which was okay, though not the kind of soupy chili I was thinking of. The pizza was actually really good to my surprise, and a tad spicy too. The calzone was the most disappointing though, being really hard, and the chocolate filling was hardly melted either.

Overall, an average dining experience. I definitely recommend getting the pizza though.

May 15th 2013: Dinner at Sawa Asian Cuisine and Lounge, Gardner

Today after work, I decided to head to the town of Gardner for dinner at Sawa Asian Cuisine and Lounge, a primarily Chinese restaurant in town.

Before the sun set though, I decided to visit a few places first, passing by Stuart Pond in Sterling,

and a few places in Leominster including the Grand View Country Club which had great views from the top of the hill,

Bartlett Pond,
Wachusett Street near Elm Street

Grand View Country Club,
454 Wachusett Street

View from Grand View Country Club

Fall Brook Reservoir,
~100 Wachusett Street

before going to the Living Stone Foundation in Leominster first to check out the stone monuments engraved with Christian sayings strewn all over the place in a somewhat disorganized manner. Pictures follow.

The Main Building

The next destination town on the list was Fitchburg

Crossroads Community Church

Fitchburg Church of the Nazarene,
800 South Street

St. Francis of Assisi Church

before I headed into Ashby to find the Trap Falls located within the Willard Brook State Forest on Townsend Road near Bernhardt Road, which were pretty beautiful as you can see from my picture below.

From here, I spent the rest of the day sightseeing in Ashburnham,

Ashburnham Community Church,
84 Main Street

St. Anne's Church,
162 Center Street

Apostolic Lutheran Church

People's Church

Winchendon

Bethany Bible Chapel

and finally Gardner before heading to dinner.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
634 Pearl Street

Old First Lutheran Church,
209 Lawrence Street

Logos Church, 9 Wasa Street

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Old Church, 122 West Street

Big Red, 95 West Street

First Bible Baptist Church

Sacred Heart of Jesus Church

Mission Street Congregational Church

Bethany Baptist Church

The restaurant is located within a strip mall, and okay decor wise.

After looking at the menu, I decided to get the Beef Negimaki (Grilled and sliced pieces of beef with scallions, and cheese, served in teriyaki sauce) for appetizers, and the Thai Mango Beef for my main dish.

Beef Negimaki

Thai Mango Beef

Both were presented pretty well, but flavor wise, they were just okay, especially because there were scallions in the Negimaki.

With that, my short but productive sightseeing trip in northern central Massachusetts after work came to an end.