Everybody look at me cuz I'm sailing on a cod.

"I'm on my way home from the gym," I told Steph as I crossed the street.
"Miiiiisch!" yelled Steph into the phone, "I'm on my way down there - don't go home! James is coming! And Scott! Don't go home!"

And so it came to pass that instead of napping I soon found myself standing at Long Wharf with a group of college friends, a couple of whom I hadn't seen in ages.

Two of our friends from UMass currently work as actors on the "high speed thrill ride," in Boston Harbor known as Codzilla*.

The premise, for those of you who have missed this three year old Boston Harbor attraction, is that you are taking a peaceful tour of the Harbor that keeps getting interrupted by a salty sea captain who wants to talk about the dangers of giant mutant codfish. (The character is Quint-esque, including a monologue that recreates beat-for-beat the tale Quint tells about surviving the USS Indianapolis.)

The boat's actual captain drives you and up to 134 other passengers around the harbor while the "tour guide" and "sea captain," argue and banter. Once the boat is past the no wake zone the jams are pumped up through a pretty great speaker system, and the captain takes off at incredible speeds out towards Deer Island.

The music is loud, the wind is salty, and it's pretty easy to imagine you're on a New England version of Miami Vice at this point. Oh, also, the boat is painted like a giant, neon codfish with huge teeth.

In the waters off of Deer Island the boat is attacked by what may or may not be a giant cod, and the ensuing chase involves more high volume, fast paced music while the boat captain guides the craft through ten minutes of tricks including 360 degree turns, dime stopping spins and other really impressive maneuvers.

As you escape the cod (sorry, spoiler), you are treated to some amazing views of the Boston Skyline while the boat's heading back to the wharf.

It wasn't my first time, but it was just as good as I remembered it.

After cruising around the harbor laughing at Conor and Kevin's characters banter, fighting off a giant cod, and getting our fair share of wind and salt whipped across our faces, we were ready for food. Luckily, the wharf isn't too far from the North End.

By this point I had forgotten about my nap. I forgot about how I wasn't dressed weather appropriately and every other reason I had for going home. Most of my friends are leaving Boston fairly soon and days like this will be only memories.

Walking through Haymarket I bought some cheap avocados, and we lingered on the edge of a crowd gathered for a festival at Government Center. A Beatles cover band was playing as Bostonians and tourists sampled food, sipped Dunkin Donuts and sang along.

"I love this city," said Steph, polishing off her gelati.

I couldn't agree more. After all, this is my city. I grew up here. This is where I come when I say I'm going home. When everyone ended up here after college I was doubly blessed - I got to have my roots and my branches all in the same place.

Still, I can't help but wonder if I will love it the same way by next summer when everyone's moved on.

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*Fun fact: Scott and Rachel also used to work on Codzilla, when it was first being created in Boston. My first summer out of school, I had a job as an actor on Margarita's Mystery Murder Cruise and our boats docked next to one another!

We thought it was great that we had all come to the city and immediately got paid acting jobs - on boats.