The Burbank jokes were a hit.

The women's ministry at church held a "connect" at Barnsdall Park on Saturday. Not only did I get to fellowship with the lovely ladies (and Baby Jude!) of Reality LA, I got to do it next to Hollyhock House.  The weather was spectacular. Cold and a bit blustery,  the sky was as blue as you could want it to be. 

My sister came along for the day. I got to play Hollywood tour guide, which is pretty much the best version of tour guide. 

This was my first amazing parking spot of the day at Barnsdall.
One good parking spot is God's mercy. A second one later in the day is God's grace.
That's how it works in LA. ;)

The Gallery Theater had quite the collection of vintage movie posters.
Including this terrifying Shirley Temple number.

AHHHH!!! I WAS FANGIRLING OVER ARCHITECTURE.

I kept telling her that it was great to see "all the sites of New York City".
It doesn't translate well here, but obviously my jokes were hysterical.

After the Women's Connect, we stopped by another  wonderful bit
of Hollywood architecture: Cinerama Dome. We saw the most giant version of
Ryan Gosling you could possibly see- the screen is 86 ft wide and the dome itself is 72 ft high.

Here's Lauren in the theater before the movie.
Let me just say that you haven't seen a
movie until you've seen it on this screen.

After Gangster Squad, we stopped by Amoeba records since it's a block away. I managed to find a Soundgarden cassette tape (yes, that's correct) and vinyl. 

I knew that I had to take Lauren to Griffith Observatory after seeing the gorgeous shots of it in Gangster Squad. First of all- Griffith Park is a turd to get to. Everyone and their mom wants to be up there at sunset. People will run you over to be up there. You have to wait in a long line in a canyon and maybe get a parking spot. You will be honked at by wealthy people who deem you "unworthy" of being near them. I fought through all of this and scored a parking spot near the observatory. I almost gave up. I did not. I parked. I conquered. 

It was freezing cold. 

However, the sunset was gorgeous. You could see the outline of Catalina.

It was the perfect end to a Hollywood tour.

Freezing her tush off. 

Here's my giant face that is 12 years old.