Mini Kolo in LA

Well it seems like months ago since Mini-Kolo (Jackson) set out for his trip to the US.  However, it is only two weeks tomorrow since he left.  One of the first things he told me was that he couldn't understand why people think airline seats are too small, he felt it was very big.

I can see how he might think that but I'm not sure I would feel the same.

He arrived in LA after an 11 hour flight, plus the journey to the airport this end and from the airport that end.  However, he thinks he is Dr Who now, travelling in time, because he left home at 6 am, to get to the airport for his three hour wait and then had an 11 hour flight but got there just after 3 pm.  I can't be bothered to explain that to him, but he was tired and so, once they reached the beach house, they went shopping for dinner.

 

Mini-Kolo was fascinated by all these watermelons and other big fruit he saw.  He chose from Whole Foods wonderful selection of prepared food and took it home to eat.

 

 

Don't worry the wine isn't really his (or so he tells me)!  The next morning he was ready for breakfast and went to Urth Cafe in Santa Monica.

 



He gave this cafe a very high baboon rating for the bread pudding with caramalised banana!  It was yummy!

After that Mini Kolo and our friend @hi_im@monkey (Monkey) who we were travelling with, wanted to see the beach.

 

Here they are between Venice and Santa Monica beaches, having a rest.  Not long after that Mini-Kolo could no longer resist the urge to climb a palm tree.

 



Well he had to do it didn't he!!

The next day he went back to the Urth Cafe for waffles with banana and other fruit.  He is sure he saw an actor from the TV series House in the cafe.

After that he wanted to go to to the beach again, and it was a good job he did!  You may remember that a couple of years ago @LeroySealion and his brother Henry had to stand in for a lifeguard on Santa Monica beach, well Mini-Kolo had to do the same, at Venice Beach.

 

He did a good job and I think people were glad he was there.  After a long morning of lifeguarding he was hungry so they went to Gladstones at Malibu for lunch.  This is a fish resturant that gets a very high baboon rating for its crab cakes, it also has great views and there were pelicans around.

 

 



After some crab cakes with salad and sour dough bread, Mini-Kolo linked up with his new buddy to go surfing on Venice Beach.

After that Mini-Kolo had an important job to do.  He needed to go back to Whole Foods to shop for the big tweet-up that was coming up that evening.

He needed to prepare food, with help from Monkey and our humans.  In the evening we had a big tweet-up.  I will write more about this in a separate blog as a lot went on, but to fill you in for now.  We met up with @MrBearAndRocky, @BerniceBlu'Jae, @MrKiplingwoof, @Winslowsmom and @TuffyCat.  Tuffy was one of the first friends I ever met on Twitter, in 2009.  It was fantastic to meet them all.  I know they have all tweeted pictures and I have more pictures to tweet, but this is a picture of the whole group.  It was such an honour to meet them all.  Thank you to all of you for giving up your evening to come over to Venice to meet up.

Mini-Kolo also managed to meet up with a couple of rehomed baboons.  Mr Bear's Buffy and @tommypug's Austin, who was staying with Mr Bear at time.  We love to catch up with rehomed baboons.

Of couse both of them told us how happy they are in their new homes.  That was a fantastic evening and we are so glad to have met everyone.  We will write more about that Tweet-up and the one in Portland, in a later entry as they deserve more emphasis.

The next day Mini-Kolo was very hungry, after being the perfect host.  He went to a cafe in Venice Beach, called the Terrace Cafe, in Washington Blvd.  We would recommend this cafe to anyone going to that area.  Kolo had an omelette and potatoes for breakfast, it all got a high baboon rating.

It was a very good thing that he filled up on breakfast because on the way back he found an unattended fire truck so he needed to fill in for the Venice Beach firemen for a while and look after their truck.

 

Mini-Kolo loved that truck.  I think he would have brought it home if he could!

After that they needed to check out of the beach house.  They went sightseeing, looking at things like Hollywood Boulevard and the House of Pies etc, (all documented by @LeroySealion, back in 2011).  Eventually they made their way to LAX airport to fly to Portland in Oregon (PDX).

More about Portland in the next entry.