Travelogue: June 2009 Archives

Cindy and I decided to head to Captain Fishbones tonight after work. Capt. Fishbones is located in the Marina Bay area north of Wollaston Beach in Quincy, MA. Parking can be scarce on the weekends, but on a Tuesday night it was not a problem. Located directly on the marina boardwalk, it sports a nice view of the marina. Unfortunately, the enclosed dining area isn't high enough up to really see out into the bay past the ships. But overall, the ambiance is comfortable and pleasant. There is an outdoor area with gas space heaters, but since it was fairly cool and foggy this evening, we stuck to the indoor dining.

The menu included a nice variety of fresh seafood leavened with traditional burgers, chicken, and pasta fare for the land-lubbers. They also have a selection of beers, wine, and cocktails (we stuck to water tonight though). Cindy ordered the fried whole clams with coleslaw and I went with one of the specials, a blackened swordfish steak served on a Caesar salad. The service was quick and friendly and everything looked great when it arrived.

(Despite the fact that I was talking with Cindy about taking a picture of the food when it arrived, I took a bite of mine before I remembered to photograph it. Sorry. ;-) )

Cindy's clams were good with little to no grit - I think she only complained about sand in one of them out of the whole plate. This is a marked improvement over our experiences at Legal Seafoods. For some reason, those guys at Legal can't get the hang of washing grit out of shellfish. But I digress... Cindy's coleslaw was a mild sweet-cream based slaw, something she's had no experience with and thus didn't particularly enjoy. I thought it was delicious (although I tend towards enjoying a hint of mustard in cream based coleslaws). It would make a good side dish choice for anyone trying to avoid spicy foods though.

My swordfish was excellent - cooked to a perfect temperature and seasoned with just the right bite. I'm always nervous when ordering "blackened" fish in the north - while this wasn't up to true Cajun standards, it was still very well executed. The salad was adorned with hearty dark croutons and a well executed Caesar dressing. I'd had the option of adding anchovy fillets, but they turned out to be a little too much salt for my taste. If you're into anchovies, they appeared to be of good quality and were certainly tasty.

The pricing was not outrageous - total price for our dinner with water to drink was $27 (pre-tip). Bear in mind that my salad was only priced at $8 - which was amazing because that swordfish steak was not particularly small. So a typical two-entree dinner should run about $36-40, well within budget for a good seafood meal. Lobster and other market priced seafood was available, but I didn't check the rates.

Overall, I'd recommend Captain Fishbones to anyone interested in some quality dining in the Quincy area. Their website also features a entertaining little flash animation (I'm not normally in favor of splash screens on websites, but this one got a chuckle). Check it out if you're in town!

Captain Fishbones
332 Victory Road
North Quincy, MA 02171
phone: 617-471-3511

Cindy was still feeling sick today, so we decided to skip the Phantom Gourmet BBQ Contest at Suffolk Downs. Instead we went to Olive Garden for lunch and then drove cross town to the Jordan Furniture IMAX theater to see Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen. Needless to say we were both pumped to see this in IMAX. When we started out, Cindy asked me if I wanted to try to buy tickets online (on the iPhone) before we got there. I told her "No, I'm sure they won't be sold out for a 2:00 showing."

So, we arrived there and we're both excited and everything, and then as we got up to the door, I saw the worse poster possible...

So, after I ate some crow pie, we decided we might as well go in and check out the mall. Neither of us had been there before, and it turns out it was very kid oriented. There was a giant animatronic Wally (the Red Sox mascot) eating a New York Yankee...

and a water fountain that had changing light and water patterns to mesmerize the kids...

and a "trapeze school" for the adults who wanted to get on a trapeze for 2 minutes and get their picture taken...

After taking in the sights at Jordan Furniture, we headed back across town to the theater we normally frequent - with Cindy buying tickets online this time. The movie was... a Michael Bay movie. Unencumbered by character development, it made up for it's theatrical shortcomings by having lots of robots, explosions, and Megan Fox. Also, Linkin Park's new song is feature in the sound track as well. Cindy and I both liked the movie (although I'm probably more critical of the movie's theatrical shortcomings than she is).

After the movie, we headed back to the hotel. Apparently the mystery fog bank that had enveloped downtown Boston while the suburbs enjoyed sunshine had decided it was time to move south and drown Quincy as well. Thus ended our day...

The Clear Registered Traveler program was a service that basically collected a bunch of information about you, ran a background check, then gave you a card that let you skip to the front of the security line at 20 airports around the country. Since Dulles International Airport was one of them, I signed up for the card a little over a year ago. I'd had good experiences with it, and renewed it for $179 in May this year.

Then on June 22nd, Clear abruptly announced that they were closing operations effective immediately. (News which I learned about via Twitter before I learned about it from Clear's customer service email. Viva la revolution!) The first order of business was to call American Express and dispute the charge from Clear. Clear has since announced that they won't be issuing refunds due to the "financial condition of the company". (In other words, they be broke.) This is why you should always use a credit card for purchases, kids. It's a lot easier to dispute a charge on a credit card than a debit card.

Anyway, the more disturbing thing about the Clear closure is that they have a huge amount of personal information about their customers - iris photos, fingerprints, names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. It's really their most valuable asset - to a prospective purchaser or to a hacker. I reviewed their privacy policy again the day I found out about the closure, and it seems to indicate that they can't sell the data. But as this Wired article points out, the policy isn't explicit about what happens if the company is liquidated or acquired.

So now I'm wondering if I should try to get an injunction against them transferring all my personal information to a third party... Good luck with that, right?

Last night I went to sleep listening to Jon Hopkins' song Light Through the Veins on endless loop. I picked it up a few months back when it was featured on the Free iTunes Songs blog. It's a very mellow electronica song that I've enjoyed, and I occassionally like to leave music on when I sleep.

But last night, I repeatedly had the most vivid dreams - dreams that I actually woke up remembering! I don't normally remember my dreams, so to remember not just one but three when I woke up was really unusual. Maybe the music was stimulating my brain?!? Have you had more vivid dreams when listening to music at night?

Cindy says (3:55 PM):
pre sake tucjet ebtrabce wukk be far left lane of the main gate
Daniel Hagan says (3:55 PM):
I'm sorry.... can you tell me that in English?
Cindy says (3:55 PM):
lmao
LMAO
i was staring at my fone when i typed
SORRY
Pre sale ticket entrance will be far left lane of the main gate