Friend: What did you do today?

LAist: Well, we started the day off at the LA River Center in Cypress Park. Then headed to the Valley over to the Sepulveda Basin, where the river is at its wildest. Next was the verdant Glendale Narrows across from Griffith Park to see the new mini-parks. After lunch, we headed to the Arroyo Seco confluence where trash was everywhere, yet is near where LA was founded. Then off we went to the Los Angeles Historic State Park that you probably know as "Not a Cornfield" (right off the Gold Line Chinatown exit). Lastly, we found ourselves under the 6th Street Bridge downtown among lots of trash and some sketchy characters.

Friend: Whoa. I feel really lazy now.

There is no better way to spend a full day learning about Los Angeles than with Jenny Price teaching you about the LA River (you may know of her on LA Observed). And if you happen to be free March 24 or May 19 (both are Saturdays), you really should make this happen. We took the Friends of the LA River (FOLAR) tour last month and saw parts of LA we've never been to or only saw in the movies.

Both upcoming tours are the same, except one is led by bus (3/24: it's more expensive) and the other is a car caravan (5/19: bring your own car, carpool with friends or strangers). Registration for the tours can be found at the FOLAR website.

To understand the tour, we'll let our pictures speak for us. Tons of pictures are after the jump.