We dropped off the dog at a new dog sitter, and decided to kick around Hollywood and West Hollywood (for a change).

First we drove down to MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art. We had to walk through the Pacific Design Center to get there; unfortunately the Design Center was closed.

A view of the facade of the Pacific Design Center

A detail of the facade

The Center reminded me of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, as its full of wholesale housewares businesses.

MOCA is housed in a sparse, block building. You enter at the store, which is really great – they carry catalogs from a number of major shows, and have a few interesting chachkas. The people working at the museum were very friendly. We didn’t visit the show, which didn’t interest us.

The facade of MOCA on Melrose

We drove over to The Grove and the Farmer’s Market to look for gifts for two sick members of Aviva’s extended family. The Grove is a big outdoor mall, with most of the same stores we could visit at the mall that’s within walking distance of our apartment. The Farmer’s Market is more interestingm as they sell food, prepared and fresh, and have a lot of little stalls hawking a variety of wares. While we didn’t find anything, we did sit down for some fat-free frozen yogurt.

The fountain at The Grove

A view of Los Angeles from the parking garage at The Grove

We had dinner at Buddha’s Belly, an Asian fusion restaurant. We shared spring rolls, and I had the hot peanut noodles, which weren’t very hot but were very tasty. I recommend this one if you want basic Asian at a good price