Beverly Hills, What a Thrill!

Thanks to Tim's summer schedule, Thursdays have sort of become our "Family Fun Day" since he has off from work that day (at least up until this week, when he started a new freelance project... oh well). Anyway, last Thursday, we went on a little day-trip to Beverly Hills!! All day long, my perpetual, excited chanting took one of three forms:

(1) "Beverly Hills, what a thrill! Beverly Hills, what a thrill!" etc., from Troop Beverly Hills. Does anyone else remember this movie? Okay, does anyone else love it as much as I do? Since I've been married, I've actually had multiple girls' nights singularly devoted to watching this film. I am such a child of the '80s. (Down with the Red Feathers!!)

(2) "Beverly Hills, that's where I want to be!!" Yay Weezer. And thanks for the new album, as well as the new primary color to add to the collection.

(3) The theme from Beverly Hills 90210: "Dunna-nunna, dunna-nunna (clap! clap!)" etc. Again, child of the '80s.

First we visited the La Brea tarpits, one of the top sources of prehistoric remains in the world (things like mammoths, direwolves, sabretooth cats, etc.), as well as Vada's mood ring from My Girl 2 (just kidding, he didn't really throw it in, Vada):

A fabricated "prehistoric scene" in the tarpits, which had a heartbreaking sign next to it, about how the mommy mammoth got stuck in the tar while her mate and offspring "watched helplessly"... I cried a little:
Ahh, the lovely scent of tar in the morning, coupled with my delicious Trader Joe's trail mix:
Tim's just cute as a button:
Then we went to LACMA (the Museum of Art), which, we discovered, is RIGHT next to the tarpits. We saw lots of amazing works of art, but we liked this guy especially, who I'm going to call Mr. Block-O. If Mr. Block-O could come alive at night, don't you think he'd just be dancing all the time?
Woo! Swing it, Mr. Block-O! I think if he had a face, he would be smiling.
Then it was time to visit Sprinkles cupcakes!! (You may recall that I posted about Dots cupcakes previously, which is our local cupcakery. Sprinkles is nationally known, so of course we had to conduct a taste-test.) There was a line outside:
Getting closer to the door:
Yay, we have cupcakes!! FAMOUS ones!!

Our delicious bounty is shown below. My determination: Dots is great for its convenience, but Sprinkles cupcakes are phenomenal. The cake alone is to die for - rich and moist and buttery, like springy pound cake (if that makes any sense). My mouth is watering, just thinking of them. I can't wait to get more some day, especially the vanilla/vanilla variety, which seemed to be the absolute best, in our opinion. They are all very pretty, though:
Next we strolled along Rodeo Drive (and surprisingly, no one told us that we looked too poor to be there):
Another scene of the street:
I had to take a picture of the Valentino storefront. I do not currently own haute couture clothing, and I never will (let's be realistic here), but of all the designers out there, I love Valentino the most. Everything is so elegant and simplistic:
For example, here is one of my favorite Valentino dresses worn by Keira Knightly on a previous Golden Globes night. Love it love it love it:

Finally, the Reg Bev Wil (seen Pretty Woman lately?), which sits at the intersection of Wilshire and Rodeo. Gotta love it:
Okay, now for some pictures of the Smunch, again for my mom's sake. Here he is, sporting his awesome Spider-Man t-shirt from Auntie Dana:
This picture was taken just outside our apartment, where I was sitting on the steps, lifting Weston up so that he could stand on my lap. Instead of standing on my lap, he started extending his legs out in front of himself and pointing his toes, like a wee little gymnast (haha!):