Monday, July 2, 2012

A weekend down on the farm (and the beach)


Saturday we woke bright and early and made our way to Revere Beach. We haven’t been there since I moved last July and we were able to take a bus the whole way. It actually wasn’t a bad ride and on the way we saw tennis courts and a public pool that we can use!

We arrived at Wonderland station and it was brand spankin’ new. I used that station for 2 years when I was still living in Revere and when I moved last summer they were in the middle of building a new parking garage. Well it’s completely done and it’s massive. They even re-did the bus area so it pulls through the garage and stops right at the doors. Now, they are doing construction on the back side of the station which I can only imagine will be more parking. The place looks fantastic. (And when do you ever say that about a T stop?)

So we walked over to the beach and there were a few others out there like us at 10:30 am. We played a little Frisbee in the water but the wind was really carrying it. So we went back to our blanket to read and listen to some music. Except the aforementioned wind would periodically gust and bury us in sand. It was so gross and annoying. We stayed for about an hour before it became too much.

Later in the afternoon I convinced Brig to head across the street and play basketball with me. It was a lot fun and even more so when we learned they have 4 hoops and 1 of them is a little shorter – aka dunkable for me. I tried upping the difficulty level by bouncing it off the backboard, catching it in mid-air and dunking it. It was really hard to get the bounce right. It kept hitting the rim on the way back and bouncing away from my eager hands. After countless attempts it dawned on me just how tiring the slam dunk contest must be.

On Sunday, we went to Kimball Farm with Brig’s friend Vinny. The place was awesome! They had mini golf (2 18-hole courses), batting cages, bumper boats, a driving range, an arcade, an animal “area” and an ice cream stand. You can pay for everything separately or the best deal is to pay $30 and you get to pick any 5 things to do. We played mini golf first (I won) then did the bumper boats (which were the most fun ever). Lunch wasn’t outrageously priced considering there were no other nearby alternatives. They offered a special where you could get a burger or hot dog with chips or potato salad and a watermelon slice for under $8. Not too shabby. (Although bottled water cost $2.50.)

Next up we went to the animal “area” and you can probably guess from my quotation marks just how impressive this was. Not counting the horses they had for pony rides or the goats and chickens they had out in the open they charged $6 to see this: a skunk, an owl, a lemur, a fox who is constantly asleep (it was even asleep in the picture they had on its cage), an alligator, an Asian water monitor (it looked like a komodo dragon), a snake, 2 tortoises (1 was checking the fence for weaknesses and actively trying to escape) and 2 rabbits. These were all located under 1 mid-sized tent. It was a pretty big letdown for my zoo member girlfriend.

After the animals we went to the arcade and got our fill of skee-ball, the basketball shooting game and air hockey. Brig cashed in her winnings for a yo-yo (which may or may not have lit up at one point) and Vinny got a popper and a weird gummy hot dog thing. I got some Skittles.

For our fifth and final selection we opted to get sundaes. No offense to the batting cages but it was pretty hot and we wanted a treat. The amount of ice cream we got was unreal and I couldn’t even finish mine. The 5 for $30 thing really is a great bargain and gives everyone a chance to pick something they want to do. Take a trip out there yourself; I guarantee you’ll have a good time.

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