West Coastin' pt. II

 Shy Maria (l.) and Fred (r.)

After two very full days of ripping and running, it was down to my last few hours to take in a few more sights and then pack my things up to head back to New York. I woke up at 10am, which was a miracle considering I was at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles until 4am. I got ready for my day quickly and called my fellow Team L.A.R.K. member Fred to come pick me up. Fred has been down with me for many years now but this was our first face to face meeting. He brought his lovely girlfriend along too and we took off to Santa Monica to see how much we could squeeze in before my 3:35pm flight.

On the boulevard.

We hit the 3rd Street Promenade and there were people everywhere! Street performers were doing their respective things and the cool ocean breeze was perfect. I popped in and out of a few stores looking for a gifts to bring back to NY, but I didn't find anything of interest. With shopping not working out we set our sights on the pier to take some pictures.

Give the drummer some.

 African drumming and dance. No Africans included.

Santa Monica Pier

At this point, we had just enough time to grab some food before I had to head to LAX to catch my ride home. We climbed back into Fred's car and went to nearby Santa Monica Place Shopping Center. We opted for semi-Chinese food. Yes, "semi". It surely was not real Chinese food, but it was close enough. After half a plate of food and 2 orange juices, I was....umm....40 minutes away from boarding time!

We took off for LAX with speed and thank goodness there was no traffic on the way. I grabbed my bag from Fred's trunk and quick stepped my way to the self check-in counter. I swiped my credit card and zipped through the prompts. When I hit the menu for checked bags I got a pop-up message:

"You're too late, Biaaaatch! The baggage check is closed. Hahahahaha! #FAIL"

Well, it didn't really say that but it might as well have. This is the part where MTV speeds up the cargo loading, boarding, taxi and takeoff.....

I knew this picture would be good for something!

I immediately called up Fred and told him, "Yo. I missed it." The good thing is that all I had to do was hop on the next flight 6 hours later. No charge. We chuckled at my stupidity and he offered to swing back around and pick me up if I didn't want to sit in the airport for 6 hours. Of course, I did not and so it was; a bonus 6 hours in Cali with Fred.

We went to a really cool graffiti art exhibition at MOCA. The exhibition is called "Art in the Streets" and is a look at graffiti art from it's roots in the '70s to present day. I had an amazing time looking at early work from artists like Lee, Dondi, Blade, Basquiat and other huge names in graffiti.

Andre has to pee.

Spray everything but the doors!

After our fill of styles, colors and photos we went over to Little Tokyo and had some snacks. Then it was that time again. I was on my way back to LAX. This time with PLENTY of time to spare. I sat and reflected on my time in LA and I just smiled. I'm so thankful for life and all of it's blessings. Major props and respect to Fred and Maria for taking care of me. You two are awesome!

Here are a couple more pics from MOCA that I like. Thanks for reading!

Rammellzee, Baby!

What the....?

Who's going to have the first graffiti fleet plane?

The legendary Mr. Cartoon.