Weekend Fun: Petersen Automotive Museum and Milk Jar Cookies

Last Friday was the opening of the Noir City Film Festival, and my husband and I took the afternoon off work to enjoy some time in the L.A. area.

We began by having lunch with a family member in the Universal Studios employee commissary. As a big Deanna Durbin fan, I love that Deanna is featured in one of the handful of posters decorating the commissary walls; given the fact the studio might not exist today without the financial success of Deanna's films, it seems entirely fitting that she's honored in this way!

We next headed for Wilshire Boulevard and the Petersen Automotive Museum, which had been substantially remodeled since my husband's last visit years ago.

The museum made for a pleasant walk of 90 minutes or so, though we both found it top-heavy with Italian cars. I've only been to one other auto museum, the National Automobile Museum in Reno, which I thought had more interesting American-made cars.

Here are a couple of shots, starting with the Batmobile from Michael Keaton's BATMAN (1989):

I found this RKO camera car especially interesting:

There was no shortage of colorful, attractive cars to look at!

After the museum we drove a few blocks to Milk Jar Cookies, a three-year-old bakery which was recently recommended by a friend.

This shop is an absolutely charming place to visit, as these photos convey:

They even serve whole milk from Broguiere's Dairy with the cookies, in cute little bottles. Some of the cookies may look rather "plain" on the outside, but on the inside, oh boy! They are so dense and rich that I couldn't finish even one in a sitting.

We also took a couple home with us, and I especially liked the birthday cookie, a sprinkle-covered confection with a vanilla cake batter flavor (birthday cookie photo below is from the Milk Jar Cookies website):

Milk Jar Cookies is a highly recommended stop!