DAY TRIPPING - Los Angeles

This Saturday was a fun one. I've been wanting to drive up to LA to check out the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and the Paley Center for a while now, after seeing lot of photos (especially from the LACMA), and this weekend, we finally did. Of course I also squeezed in a couple of little dessert places that I'd seen on Instagram and my Sweetthooth just couldn't resist.

The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills

I read about the Television Out Of The Box exhibit at the Paley Center and really have been wanting to go (mostly just to sit on the couch from the Central Perk from FRIENDS). I hadn't really paid attention to where it was, but once we got there, we found ourselves driving along Rodeo Drive. It's right there in Beverly Hills. If you want to go to the Paley Center, of just take a stroll through Beverly Hills (which has really cute little shop on Santa Monica Blvd and obviously every designer store imaginable on Rodeo Drive) there is 2 hr free (yes, FREE) parking on Beverly Drive (below Crate & Barrel) across the street from the Center.


The Television Out of The Box Warner Brothers exhibit is still on until 2015 and features costumes and props from decades of TV shows and movies. Entrance is $10 ($8 if you're a student). See more information here.

Just a block north of the center is the Beverly Gardens Park with the famous Beverly Hills sign.

Right across the street from the Paley Center on Santa Monica Blvd is the Ice Cream Lab. Obviously I had to check it out. Ice Cream is made right there. It's on the pricey side (duh, it's in Beverly Hills), but very yummy and even the small portion (5oz) is plenty.

After the trip to Beverly Hills, we drove a few miles east to the LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

I have to admit, I had exactly 3 reason I've been wanting to go:
1 - I'd seen pictures of people with a giant spaghetti installation and I really wanted one myself
2 - The street lights collection at the museum looks really cool, and again, I wanted to take a picture of it.
3 - As a former Fashion Student, I felt obligated to check out the DVF exhibit

Yes, this is my life ... haha. But, anyways, it was lots of fun and to be honest, an Art Museum is probably one of the few places I can easily drag Manny to. He's a total art geek.
When we got to the museum, we were totally surprised. Instead of 1 large, kinda old building (like most  of the museums in San Diego), the LACMA is a large campus with 9 buildings dedicated to different art genres and little snack places. We started with the outdoor street light collection and then moved to the 4 story Ahmason Bulding and spent a good 2 hours there. I eventually left Manny in the European art section (his favorite) and took a quick trip to the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which, according to the brochure, had a little observation deck from which you could see the Hollywood sign (it was nice, but nothing in comparison to the rooftop Garden at the MET in New York. That view is just awesome).

After a couple more hours (and a quick pick-me-up afternoon snack stop of the Coffee+Milk cafe at the museum) we headed to Milk Jar Cookie, a little cafe just a few blocks away from the museum with the cutest store front and yummy cookies.

While we were in the Art of the Americas Building I saw a painting Gloria Stuart picturing the Watts Towers. I had never heard of these Towers and when I overheard 2 people talking about how the Watts Towers look like now, I decided to google their location and stop by later to check them out. Because of the infamous LA traffic, we got to the towers after sunset and the park was already closed. We got to check them out a bit and will definitely try to stop by there some time again.