This past week Beckham went to California with a group of friends to see Kendrick Lamar and SZA. It was his first trip without an adult going as well. I wasn't too nervous, just a mom nerves. He loved it and it made him want to move there even more.
The trip in Beck's words:
On the first day as we landed we assumed there would be bus to take us to the hotel, we were wrong and began to walk toward a Metro Station to lessen the walk to the hotel. On the way we stopped by a Carl's Jr. for a mid-day snack. We finally arrived and hopped on the first metro that came by. A security guard let us know that this was the wrong train for where we were going and gave us directions and a map for all metro's in LA. We got on the train, got to our stop, and was greeted by a homeless women swearing and calling passengers racist, obviously was on something. As we walked toward the hotel, we learned a LA custom, jaywalking is regular, and we'd do it during the rest of the trip. We arrived at the hotel and had issues checking in. After a good 1/2 hour back and forth between Paul, the attendant, and myself, we finally figured it out and got comfortable in our room. We originally planned to go to a taco spot for dinner, but we were all too hungry and tired to walk again, so we decided to order pizza. We found a great looking local pizza spot, didn't deliver. We moved on to the second best option, delivered but not to our area. Finally we found a pizza spot that delivered to our hotel and was decently rated.
On day two I woke up at about 6:00 and immediately showered and went down to eat breakfast. When I got back at around 7:00 everyone else woke up. Cameron insisted to me that breakfast stared at 8:00 as though I didn't already eat. After convincing him it already started, we all went down to eat and plan how we were getting to Universal Studios from our hotel. We settled on a train path, got ready, and headed off to the station. The first hour of the ride was tame, but an old man we referred to as OG as playing music loud, dancing, and making "threats." He seemed tame, just not all there. After another 45 minutes or so we arrived at our final stop and walked to Universal Studios. We went through security and our first stop was Lar Lads donuts for the very large donuts, a bad idea because our next stop was the Harry Potter ride. The line was nonexistent and we got on the ride as soon as we got there. About midway through the ride, it broke down. The only two times I had ridden the ride (last time was when we went as a family in 2017), it broke down. We finished it and moved to the Minion ride. We waited about an hour and the ride was a lot less fun than I remember. At this point it was about 2:00 and we had a reservation at Bubba Gump Shrimp, so Cameron, Piero, and Zander quickly grabbed Toad hats and we headed for the restaurant. We sat next to this woman and her son, planning what they were doing for that day. We over heard her talking about Kendrick Lamar and we mentioned to her that we were going to the concert that night. She was about 4 shots deep and talked to us about everything; She was an aunt to one of Kendrick's Producers, Her son is an actor in Abbott Elementary, Her Family, everything. After we finished Bubba Gump, we headed to Voodoo Donuts with the intent to order the CBD (Cock n' Ball Donut). As we got in we didn't see it on the menu. Zander didn't want to ask about the donut but, I wanted the donut, so I asked the lady helping us. She let us know that the shop was supposed to be "family friendly" so they couldn't advertise the donut but it was real. We filled out a form and agreed to grab the donut when they opened tomorrow.
The trip to Sofi Stadium was long, but no issues beyond that. The entrance was simple and quick, but the merch line was absurd, no less that 500 people in line. Cameron and I headed to our seats and Zander and Piero stayed to get merch. Mustard (A Producer for Kendrick) opened the concert, playing a few songs until about 8:00, that's when Zander and Piero arrived to their seats and we were ready to see Kendrick Lamar Live. He began with "Wacced Out Murals" and came out on a beautiful GNX car. He moved into "Squabble up", followed by one of my favorite performances, "King Kunta". After two other songs, he left the stage and SZA began her performance. After five songs both her and Kendrick did a few of their duo songs. The crowd was berserk and we were having the time of our lives. Then Kendrick played another favorite of mine, "Euphoria". This performance included flames, laser, and the Energy was through the roof. He played a few more popular songs, each performance, out of this world. SZA and Kendrick would have another 2 sets each. Then they played their last 3 songs; "Not Like Us", "Luther", and "Gloria". We left during Gloria to avoid the crowd. we decided to walk back because the bus we came on wouldn't be there for another 45 minutes. After a very long walk back to the hotel, we fell asleep pretty quickly.
The next day was our Universal Day. We woke up, ate breakfast, and arrived at Universal by 9:30. I was immediately stopped by a train conductor asking why I didn't have a hat. The other three were wearing their Toad Hats and I didn't want to buy one, so I told him I lost it. Playing along, he said it was a blessing because they looked stupid. After some convincing, I decided to get the Mario hat. The group told me I was the "group leader" and they were just the toads. We would get a lot of attention from everybody because of our hats. Through the day we rode the Mummy Ride 6-7 times, The Harry Potter ride 4-5 times, the Simpsons ride once, the studio tour once, the Jurassic Park ride twice, and the Mario Ride once. The Mario ride was easily one of my least favorite because the head set was very heavy and the ride itself was slow. We ate at the Krusty Burger for lunch. By about 4:30 we were bored of the park and decided instead of staying until 7:00, we'd go to Hollywood Blvd. that was on the way to the hotel. We first went to this very large record store called Amoeba Records. It had everything music as far as the eye could see. Zander and I were in there for about 1/2 an hour before Cameron and Piero wanted us to leave, so we got our stuff and left. We then went to Funko headquarters and looked at the pop scenes for about 20 minutes. We then headed to a Mexican spot for dinner. They had a phenomenal burrito that I ordered. After dinner, it hit about 8:00 and we headed back to the hotel.
On the final day we simply packed, had breakfast, and headed to the airport. TSA and checking in was a lot quicker than I expected so we had about 3 hours to kill before our plane arrives. The plane was 1/2 an hour late, but other than that the flight home was smooth.
