Further adventures in Boston

We have talked about the great Tweet-up, after that, Mini-Kolo had further adventures in Boston.  The first of these started with a breakfast sandwich at Tatte.  Mini-Kolo was in for a busy day so he needed a good breakfast.  A fried egg and cheese sandwich (he didn't have the bacon)!

After breakfast Mini-Kolo set out for Harvard.

There was a long queue to take pictures with John Harvard, but Mini-Kolo climbed up his chair and looked at his books.  He seemed to draw a bigger audience than Mr Harvard.

In order to prove that he had been to Harvard he had his picture taken with the plaque on the stand where Mr Harvard sits.

Moving on for a walk around Cambridge, where Harvard is situated, he noticed this ice cream shop, he liked the look of it, but sadly it wasn't open. Perhaps it was a bit early in the morning, or maybe the cow mascot was eating the ice cream herself.

Mini-Kolo felt that he could progress straight to advanced studies, and not bother with the easier stuff.  He visited the admissions department to discuss that with them.  Sadly, as it was Labor Day, they were closed.

Mini-Kolo wanted to get a Harvard sweatshirt, but they didn't seem to have one in his size.  He thought this one would do!  He found it at the Co-op in Harvard.  I'm sure it suits him.

Mini-Kolo finished his visit to Harvard with lunch (if you can call it lunch), at the Co-op.  Apple tart for lunch!!  Umm!! I'm not sure about that Mini-Kolo

After a busy and hot day at Harvard Mini-Kolo was hungry (you see, apple tart does not make a good lunch)!  By this time we had met up with our friend Monkey again and we introduced him to Durgin Park.  Mini-Kolo chose the mac and cheese.

It was very nice, but that didn't come with chips either.  More salad!!  Not Mini-Kolo's favourite!  He enjoyed his dinner though.

Monkey ordered a pudding, strawberry shortcake.  Mini-Kolo had to help him out with that one.

The next day Mini-Kolo started with breakfast at the Paramount restaurant in Charles Street.  We had wanted to go to this place for breakfast before, but it is so popular that, over the Labor Day weekend, there were long queues.  Mini-Kolo could see exactly why once he tried the banana french toast.

After that he decided to visit the medical museum at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Mini-Kolo finds medical things interesting so he was keen to go.

He watched some innovative operating techniques.

 Examined some surgical instruments, and, most interestingly:

Looked at this 1970s heart/lung machine.  Mini-Kolo loved playing with the dials, what a good thing there was no patient attached to it at the time!  He also did some diagnosing and matching cells.  It was a fascinating museum.

Massachusetts General Hospital is famous because that is where ether was first used in operations.  We were able to go into the main hospital to visit the ether dome, where they carried out the operations.  Mini-Kolo took a seat in the lecture theater to view an operation.  However, there was no operation scheduled so he decided to give a lecture instead.

Only one person attended the lecture, and Mini-Kolo was a little puzzled about what had happened to this person's fur.

They seemed to get on well, despite the naked condition of the chap.  After visiting the museum Mini-Kolo went for a walk around town and found a grilled cheese sandwich to have for lunch, at Panificio in Charles Street.

After that Mini-Kolo was pretty full and had to walk further to digest all that food.

That didn't stop him wanting breakfast the next day, of course.  We went back to Panificio and had to choose between their banana pancakes and french toast.

This was our last day and we had a last look around Boston before going to the airport to get our night flight back to Heathrow.  That didn't stop Mini-Kolo from getting into more interesting adventures.  This time helping the Boston police.

Finally, after an exciting holiday, we made our way to Logan International Airport to get back to England.  Mini-Kolo enjoyed watching the planes being loaded and unloaded, landing and taking off.  It is also rather an airport with a view.

Thank you for reading about Mini-Kolo's adventures.  We are planning another trip to the US next year, to do what we had intended to do last year, including San Diego and Seattle.  Before that we have another week before my person returns to work so we will be doing some walking and blog about that.  There is a heatwave in England still so I don't know how far we will get.

Mini-Kolo had a great trip to the US and was so glad to meet friends in Boston.  We missed those who could not make it to the Tweet-up, but hope to see you on another occasion.

Arriving in Boston and the first two days

So my last blog told about what we did in Texas and left Mini-Kolo saying goodbye to Monkey and leaving for Dallas Fort Worth airport.  The airport was big and air conditioned and good for a walk.  A leg stretch was needed after all the hot weather in Dallas.  Mini-Kolo met some Texan supermodels in the airport.

Very handsome and great clothes, but where else but in Texas would you meet cattle supermodels?

After a good flight on American Airlines we arrived at Logan Airport in Boston and made our way to the hotel, the Wyndham in Blossom Street.  Nice and central and easy to get to.  Once we had checked in we went in search of a pizza.  There was a bit of a shock to find that our usual favourite pizza place in Boston, the California Pizza Kitchen, had closed down.  However, we found a great pizza at Panificio in Charles Street.

Phew!!  Mini-Kolo was worried that he wouldn't get a pizza.  Of course we knew that pizza was easily available in the North End but we had walked in the other direction and were a bit lazy about walking over there, so Mini-Kolo was thrilled to find this one, and it was delicious.

More food!  First thing in the morning we found the biggest almond croissant in the world, at Tatte in Charles Street.  It didn't take Mini-Kolo long to polish that off!

After that a long walked, all over Boston.  We finished by walking up Commonwealth Avenue.

By the time we reached there Mini-Kolo felt in need of a rest before walking back.  On he way back Mini-Kolo encountered some frat boys having a back to college party.  We think it was going to get noisy!!

The next day was Tweet-up day!  We met at Durgin Park, near Quincy Market.  We met:

@countryclare7 (Mary Ellen, in the light blue stripped top), @lilyluwhoT (Bonny at the back) and @grrlysquirrel75 (Michelle), Bonny and Mary Ellen brought their baboons along too.

The baboons started by getting into the cornbread, well it was at least two hours since Mini-Kolo had had an enormous brioche for breakfast.

Well baboons need to eat constantly!

Mini-Kolo much preferred manperson's and Michelle's chips to his own salad.  I think he is pinching them in this picture, it looks rather suspicious anyway.

After lunch we went for a walk to the North End to do some sightseeing.  The baboons found a peace garden where they had their pictures taken.

The garden was dedicated to St Francis of Assisi, who was a patron saint of animals, so they thought he wouldn't mind them climbing on his railings.

We really enjoyed the Tweet-up, thank you to all who came along it was fun.

Mini-Kolo had a few more adventures in Boston, we will blog about those tomorrow.  Thank you for reading.

Arriving in Texas

Its been a while since we blogged.  Well its been a bit of a quiet time at Baboon HQ.  However, we are back from holiday and ready to tell you all about it.

Mini-Kolo was going to Texas so he started out in his Longhorns shirt.  He had to leave home early so he had breakfast at Heathrow Terminal 5.  That was quite exciting as he ran into a number of GB Paralympic athletes, who were leaving from Brazil.

After a long delay and long flight, he arrived in Dallas, got through immigration with no problem and waited in the long, long, long customs queue and made his way to his favourite TexMex resturant, Gloria's (there are lots of these now in Dallas).

He started with nachos and sauce.  He likes the black bean sauce better than the salsa.  Then he had a plantain starter.

With sour cream and more black bean sauce.  Followed by ...

spinach enchiladas, with rice and sauce.  Now he felt that he was really in Texas.

The next day he went to check out his favourite Texas supermarket, Central Market.  He liked the look of these cakes,

but not as much as these cakes.

Yes the cakes at Central Market are rather special aren't they!  Anyone visiting Texas and not visiting Central Market is missing out.  Mini-Kolo bought ingredients to cook macaroni cheese, or as it is called in America mac and cheese.

After all of that shopping he went for lunch at Judy's in Richardson (Dallas).  He chose between grilled cheese (an American essential) and tuna on rye.  He chose the grilled cheese.

After all of that travelling Mini-Kolo was quite tired.  He cooked macaroni cheese and had an early night.

The next day he got up early and went for breakfast at Cafe Brazil in Richardson.  He spent a long time looking at the menu and chose fruit French toast.

Delicious!

Mini-Kolo did more than just eat on his trip.  He visited the Museum of Science and Natural History in Dallas.  He met some interesting people there.

This was a really interesting museum.  Mini-Kolo really liked these antlers.

He studied this oil well.

and this miniature aircraft engine.

Finally he got interested in this desert scene as it had a wild boar, and Mini-Kolo is fascinated by wild boar.

After that he decided to check out the swimming pool at our friend's complex.

It was quite hot!  Mini-Kolo read the pool rules.  There were an awful lot of them!

The first thing he noticed was that there was no lifeguard.  So he decided to put that right.

As there was nobody else swimming he decided that this was a bit of a waste of time so he decided to try some swimming himself.

On the other hand it was a bit wet and so he changed his mind.

After all of those adventures he was hungry and went to Central Market cafe, where he had Chinese food.

It was delicious.

He had one more day in Texas and he spent most of it eating.

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast at Norma's in Dallas.  Norma's is famous for pies and Mini-Kolo checked these out.

More swimming and walking and sightseeing and then dinner at Cafe Brazil, cheese omelette with rosemary potatoes.

Yes, a lot of eating but Texas was hot and Mini-Kolo used up a lot of energy in the pool.  He needed lots of food and the food in Texas is rather special.

The next day Mini-Kolo had to say goodbye to our friend Monkey.

After that he left for Dallas Fort Worth airport to move on to Boston.  Read more about his journey and his adventures in Boston in the next blog.