LA-LA Land

FYI, this is very picture heavy. Just saying.

The last week has been super busy! So I have much to show you all. I'm a little behind on things, so bare with me, but I thought with our trip last Sunday. We went to celebrate Chelsea's birthday and it was a lovely day, despite being spent in LA ( ;-) ).

Aww, look, my hair looked nice before it got hot. 

SO cute!!!

We started off by going to Galco's in Pasadena. Delaney found out about this place which sells nothing but gourmet, weird, old, new, and bizarre sodas. It. Was. Amazing. They had a section of old fashion candy/ fun candies that are hard to find, and a meat deli (random), but everything else was soda and beers. I bought two kind of beers to try, and a ton of sodas. I don't even drink soda that often. But when faced with a thousand varieties of Ginger Beer ( my fave!), I kind of got carried away (and after a taste test we all determined that the Super Spicy Jamaican Ginger Beer was the best.). They also sold Teaberry gum, which I adore and can never find. I ended up buying way more of the candy than I'd intended! But they were cute, plus I kinda love Sugar Daddy's and can never seem to find them. So, so good!

unusually clear freeway.

I am totally addicted to these things!

Afterwards we went to the Farmer's Market at The Grove for lunch. The Grove is a hectic place on Sundays and I get claustrophobic, but it is a cute little place. The shops are charming and whatever cuisine you fancy, they've got it. Sure it's over priced, but welcome to LA. Gas was $4.56 for no reason at all.

The main event of the day was a trip to the LACMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit. Sadly there were no photos allowed in that exhibit, but good gosh, if you get a chance to go, GO! It was fabulous! There is a ton of his early work (I should probably preface this by saying that I am a HUGE Tim Burton fan!), including some films and some stop motion films from when he was a teenager! Plus there are a few costumes on display all by the fabulous Colleen Atwood. Johnny Depp's costume from Edward Scissorhands The headless Horseman's cape from Sleepy Hollow (which was HAND QUILTED! Also I touched it, but don't tell), plus a ton of props from various films. They had so much goodness! Utterly fantastic! I definitely want to go again before I leave!

LOVE

Our tickets to the Tim Burton exhibit allowed us to get into all the other exhibits so while waiting for the rest of our group, we wondered off into the Modern Art building. Okay. I just do not get Modern Art. I try, I really try, but it's like people are trying to legitimize their weird obsession with putting pool toys through various construction equipment by calling it art. I'm sure it took skill, i'm sure you poured your soul into it, but if you expect someone to take you seriously, don't take a series of soft-core porn pictures and superimpose a giant lobster picture over them. It's just weird. I did however, finally get to see the Bubbles and Michael Jackson sculpture, which we were supposed to see at the SFMOMA a few years ago. My life is just a little more complete. We did entertain ourselves by taking A Series I like to call Delaney in Modern Art Land.

This was my father's idea. Cuz he's mature like that.

The LACMA is right next to/on the LA Brea Tarpits, so we all walked down to them. Basically they are fairly unexciting except for when some gas is released and the tar bubbles. It smells very bad, and looks equally gross, but it's kind of hilarious. There is this pretty and well manicured park and every few feet there is tar bubbling up from the ground. Some of the sections have been gated off, but there are little spots over the whole place. The big pit is actually neat. It's basically a lake filled with tar. Apparently there have been something like 14,000 wolf skeletons found inside the pits, along with woolly mammoths, and the like.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the other exhibits in the LACMA. The textiles and costumes are spread throughout the museum, but we did manage to see some of the mid-century pieces they had, which were of course fantastic!

mama want.

*dies*

The same exhibit with the mid-century clothing was and American Art exhibit and had some really neat pieces from the Federal Era (does it drive anyone else crazy when people call it the Regency era in the US? AHHH! It drives me batty!) through the 60's. I particularly loved some of the Art Deco pieces.

The fireplace isn't crooked, it's just my photo...

Oh look, it's Pauly Shore.

It was hot, I am a wimp in the heat. Do not judge my appearance. 

The lamppost sculpture outside ended up being everyone's favourite piece. It was pretty cool! When we finished at the LACMA we headed over to Westwood to get dinner at Jerry's Diner and Dessert at Diddy Riese. Diddy Riese makes their own cookies and ice cram and then makes ice cream sandwiches for $1.50! With a groups our size (12 people), you can imagine this is very popular!

Lolita!

Pretty much a perfect day!