[Weekending] Wall Crawl: Venice + Other Weekend Happenings.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

This past weekend, Seth went on his yearly boys trip to Arizona to watch the Angels play during Spring Training, which left me and Mason to have a special weekend to ourselves.

Mason's school was closed on Friday for a "teacher prep day" (coincidentally on St. Patrick's Day... I mean, I wouldn't blame them if they took a mental health day and were just drinking green beer all day! ha!) so I had planned to taking the day off anyway. I made plans with Desiree to do a little wall crawlin' and together we decided that we'd hit up Venice to see what their street art looked like.

Being the amazing researcher that she is, Desiree laid out a plan and we had seven walls that we were going to hit - five were up and down Abbot Kinney Blvd. and two were along the ocean front/beach area. Totally doable when you have enough snacks to bribe kids to pose for pictures!

I made amazing time getting to her house and then we piled all the kids in her car and headed up to Venice. We wanted to get there and back as soon as we could since it was St. Patrick's Day and we knew that people would be starting to drink at who-knows-what-time and that there would surely be an insane amount of traffic with the holiday being combined with being a Friday.

We actually made good time getting up to Venice and were on our way to the first wall destination when we came upon this wall.


So we made a pit stop. 


We then continued on our way, found a parking spot, and stumbled upon this wall, which was not part of the original seven. But we had to take a picture, obviously. Also, please note: the mailbox. Yep, I swear, mailboxes just find Mason!


Then we were finally on our way down the street to the first planned wall stop.


With this wall across the alley way as a bonus!


When in Venice...


The Love Wall! Quite possibly my favorite wall of the day. 

Fun fact: sometimes this wall is white and sometimes this wall is black. I have a feeling these walls get a lot of graffiti and so they have to re-paint often. In fact, there was some on this wall that I had to edit out. So sad.


Palm trees. So California!


Across the alley way from the palm trees and time for a snack break.


And this begins one of the best surprises of the day. We were just walking down the street, trying to find our next planned stop when we saw some color peaking over a fence. There were multiple entrances to where this wall was, but they were all locked. We seriously contemplated trying to find someone to let us in when I suggested we go around the other way and see if it was open. The boys walked ahead and then all of a sudden, they disappeared. I thought it was a construction site or something because all I could see was a dirt road so I started yelling to Mason to stop. But then Desiree and I rounded the corner and ALL THE PRAISE HANDS! It was just some sort of dirt lot or something and it had the most amazing walls! This butterfly one was definitely a favorite...


Followed by this wall, which is actually the lower part of the butterfly wall.


And this two-for-one wall where Julia made her one minute appearance!

I love this one because it looks like the boys are telling secrets and poor Julia is running off like "Mom! The boys are being mean to me!" but really who knows what the boys are doing and she was just running off for more snacks ;)


The left hand side of the two-for-one wall.

Photo by Desiree

And then what we thought was our last wall of the day before we headed off to find one special wall by the water front -- this awesome geometric wave wall. The boys are like "Woohoo! We made it! Mom won't ask for anymore pictures!" LOL.

Photo by Desiree

Yet apparently Mason actually doesn't mind? Ha!

PS check out those abs! My gosh, if I even had a one pack to his eight pack. #jealous

Photo by Desiree

And then our best surprise of the day -- the selfie wall! We seriously parked almost right next to it and never noticed it until we were leaving, so of course we HAD to get a picture. This is quite possibly my favorite picture of the day.

You may be wondering what those boys are looking at? Well, they were ACTUALLY taking selfies as we were taking pictures of them!

Photo by Mason

He's not half bad! I mean, minus the snot (sorry!), it's a pretty good picture! I mean, his whole face is in it AND he got the selfie sign! We may have a little photog in the making!



And then one of the most amazing, gorgeous walls we found -- the Van Gogh inspired wall. It was down by the water front and was a bit... sketchy... so we parked the car, threw the boys out, snapped a few pictures, and were on our way home to have lunch.

Yes, we knocked out FOURTEEN walls in a little over an hour. #winning

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For more details on all these amazing walls and their locations, check out Desiree's post from yesterday.

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The rest of the weekend wasn't nearly as exciting. On Saturday, Mason went to his ABA therapy, I ran some errands, and then I picked him up, we played, and then we went out to dinner with Nanny (Seth's mom).


Sunday started off with some morning yoga...


... was followed by a trip to the grocery store...


... and then was followed up by lunch and some laundry and some playing. Seth and his dad came home and shortly thereafter, we packed up some stuff and went back over to Nanny's house for Sunday night dinner. Mason and I went with Nanny to pick up Bubbe (Seth's grandma) to bring her over for dinner (with a pitstop to get some pants altered and a fun photo opportunity at a purple wall) and then we ate and it was back home for bed time.


Overall, it was a great weekend and I can't wait to do it all over again this coming weekend! We're halfway there!



11 comments:

  1. Such cute pictures! The selfie wall is my fave!

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  2. I've said this before to Desiree, California has to have the best walls in America. I am so envious of the photos you can snag with such pretty backdrops.

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  3. We have yet to make it to Spring training! It’s on our bucketlist, though. You guys found the coolest walls on this outing. I need to visit CA! Those boys look like they have so much fun together! And I love that there was a mailbox on one of the walls. So perfect!

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  4. I cannot believe how many colorful walls there are by you! So cool, and so fun to do it with Desiree and her kids :) Sounds like a great weekend!

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  5. You guys and your walls, I love it all! And impressive you hit up so many walls in such a short amount of time! And made it home in time for lunch. The traffic gods were in your favor :)

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  6. I wish there were fun murals around here- well, there used to be and they are being painted over, crying emoji. Im so impressed how game the kids are! Snacks fix everything lol.

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  7. TAKE ME BACK TO VENICE! I know there are a bunch more we missed! Not to mention we didn't even really TOUCH the boardwalk!
    Let's also talk about that PURPLE WALL! Love. It.

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  8. 14 walls in just over an hour?! You guys rock! So many great walls here--I can't even pick a favorite! And I can't even imagine painting one of these only to realize graffiti ruined it. I would be livid! (Not that I could ever paint one anyway!!!) Can't wait for your next wall crawl!

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  9. So jealous of all your recent adventures together! And those walls are seriously beautiful!

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