Jennifer squeezed my hand and smiled happily as we stood taking it all in and this was going to be another big adventure. I looked over at her, a big smile making it clear that she was looking forward to the day. We walked across the street to an elevated tramway station then took it one stop to the East to find ourselves in the middle of town with midrise buildings around and behind us and canals and a park in front. One difference was Somerset did not have any tall buildings more than eight stories in the center city with only the condos on the harbor shores West of Town being taller. Devon had perhaps three dozen buildings between fifteen and thirty stories tall, some commercial, but most mixed-use. Think of a much smaller and shorter Dubai with lots of concrete and glass buildings with modern appearance.
The people seemed to be roughly the same as those in Somerset, all going about their day off with many gathering in the park. Street vendors and food carts were a bit of a change compared to The Central Fountain and West Park, which did not allow them.
I thought of Ashley less and less, but it felt strange to walk in Devon knowing my ex-wife had likely been walking close by there sometime in the past week. I was all in with Jennifer, but Ashley and I had parted on good terms and sometimes thoughts intruded. Though a bit smaller than Somerset, Devon held many points of interest and their tram system was up and running while the one in Somerset was still under construction.
We were set loose to wander as we wanted along the canal at the center of town, appropriately named The Central Canal, and told to meet an hour and a half later at half past eleven at West Canal Street at the north end of the park that covered both sides There were roads along the park, appropriately named East Canal and West Canal. The park itself lined both edges of The Central Canal and the area was appropriately called Central Canal Park. It was a sunny Saturday as residents, both families and couples flocked to the park. I realized this was the site for the nightly music and laser show we had seen mentioned on the CIS App.
There were many similarities between Central Canal Park and the area near The Central Fountain including an amphitheater and the pedestrian friendly design of the area with extremely limited parking for autos. I'll spare you a description of the shops we went to other than most were local artisans and she did buy a pair of handmade silver earrings with the outline of St Austell Island on them.
After buying the earrings and putting them on, Jennifer came in for a hug that lingered. She looked into my eyes with a lot of warmth then it faded again. It was not coldness, it was definitely fear. She forced whatever she was thinking away then took my hand and pulled us out of the store. I asked her what was wrong and she said there was nothing wrong, but I stopped walking, forcing her to stop. She looked me in the eye and repeated, "Nothing is wrong."
She was not lying and I believed her, but it was disquieting.
Per our instructions, we met at the North end of the park on West Canal at half past eleven. There was a two-story cement and glass building with a neon sign with the outline of a sailing ship above the name, 'Harr!Ible!" If you were to guess a pirate themed lunch and dinner theater where they made a million bad pirate puns, you would be right. We walked in and we were paired off with Jayson and Cara in a wooden booth made out like part of a sailing ship.
I won their 'trivia' contest. What is the largest roast beef fast food franchise restaurant in the US? Arby's? No, Arrrr!bys. They would not take my answer until I put enough emphasis on Arrr! Where does a pirate dock his ship? The Harrr!bor. Yeah. I'll stop now. I won a milkshake, my choice of one of their stuffed animals or characters from a display, and a faux parchment certificate that says, 'This is to certify that Joshua Simmons is Harr!ible'. The words 'Joshua Simmons is Harr!ible' was printed much larger than the words before it. Damn right, I hung it up in my cubicle at work the very next workday morning.
They had a gift shop with a lot of plastic signs with terrible pirate puns such as signs such as, 'Your mom is such a harrrr!' or 'YO! Hoe! Yo HOE! I want a Hoe! And a bottle of rum'. Dirty bastards. For my win, we were given a voucher so we went to a counter to select one of the stuffed animals or characters. Jennifer selected an anatomically correct, but over-endowed pirate.
Why she chose that one over the stuffed parrot that told dirty jokes, I will never know but she was laughing at it. If you pulled his, uh, thing he would say a couple dozen random things and this was much more advanced than anything from when I was a kid. She yanked it once and he said, "Shiverrr me timber! Ayyy keep doin' that!" when she was laughing but did not follow up, he said, "Arrr! I didn't tell ya to stop!" She yanked it again and he said, "I'm a hoisting up me mast!" The third time he made a cum shooting sound, splut! Splut, SPLUT! She pulled it another time and he said, "I'm lookin' for a... LAND HOE!!"
If I had picked out that thing, I would have received an eye roll and a frown. Selling USB sticks with videos and photos of the guests' adventures seemed to be common and Harr!ible was no different. They had our adventures on video and yes, we bought that one, too.
The food was surprisingly excellent and my chicken tenders, while a rather unimaginative choice, were cooked well, not too bready and the seasoned fries were good enough I asked about them. Unfortunately, they would not tell me their secret seasonings as it was good enough to keep people coming in and they did quite a business out a side window with takeaway food. Add in two dozen choices for condiments for the tenders and Movie Max added another great meal that was quite an adventure and a lot of fun.
There was a show with some singing and dancing. I can't say I hated the nude kickline of pirate wenches. Jennifer just smirked at me while that part of the show went on, and yes I like looking at pretty women. This was followed by an audience participation portion where I was pulled onto a stage and several of us 'fought' from one faux pirate ship at the center stage to another faux pirate ship with faux pirate swords that were obviously made of fabric and stuffed like a stuffed animal. You will be shocked that we, the guests, won the fight and the actors who worked there surrendered.
Walking out, you were given the choice of walking out the door or walking up a ramp to a diving board made out for 'walking the plank' into a pool at the exit. Jennifer 'made' me walk the plank then jumped into the pool after me. I got a hot kiss and promises that she would make it worth my while later that night though I was never worried that Jennifer would let me get blue balls. The key to her vagina was the same as the key to her heart and the key to her heart was simply to give myself to her and make sure she understood that simple fact.
Jay switched off with Claire as host for the afternoon and we headed to the fun pier. Claire texted into her phone and one by one, a ride pass was delivered to each of our phones for the fun pier including one ride on Devon Overlook, the giant ferris wheel at the end of the pier that was one hundred meters in diameter. Yes, I said meters, The Cornwall Islands are a mixed up mishmash of measuring standards even more bewildering than in the UK. Take the UK mish mash then add the presence of large numbers of US soldiers in World War Two who would have nothing to do with anything metric. Our passes allowed us to set up a reservation time for Devon Overlook, the first of which was a half hour later.
We did a few rounds of bumper cars and one on a swinging boat suspended from an A-frame high above the pier deck. Our time came up and we were in the 'short' line for the ferris wheel once we presented our reservations. What a view, though the ride was only one rotation loading, three rotations moving then followed by one rotation exiting. Still an experience well worth it, well, at least once.
After that, the giant carousel was okay if only above average because it was much larger than a typical carousel. We both enjoyed the spinning swing ride, mostly because it also rose much higher in the air than similar rides. The fun pier was not big enough for a serious roller coaster though had a nice selection of typical rides, all of which were open for us to experience free of charge thanks to the pass that Claire had texted into our phones.
