I love traveling on the weekend when Daylight Savings ends. It’s like a free hour of vacation.

So, Halloween weekend, (I know, I’m about two weeks behind here), we drove up to Minneapolis for:

1. A lot of great food, including breakfast tacos at Moose &  Sadies (below); burgers, tots, and beer at Bulldog Northeast (they had me at “tots”);  contemporary Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cuisine at Saffron Lounge (I almost always go for good Mediterranean food while traveling to a big city, because you can’t find much of it here at home); and an amazing pile of huevos rancheros and delicious vegetable benedict at Hell’s Kitchen (could I eat brunch there every Sunday, please?).

2. A Ben Folds show featuring Sonny and Cher costumes, a ghost drummer, and an auditorium full of fans wearing dark-rimmed Ben Folds glasses. (We got there a half-hour before the show and were still too late to snag a pair!)

3. Shopping, including a stop at i like you, a fantastic local shop full of fun handmade items including prints, silk-screened t-shirts, jewelry, soaps, hats and scarfs, and softies, like this upcycled sweater cat that I couldn’t resist bringing home with me:

The store reminded me of Anthology in Madison, which I wrote about a couple of months ago, but with a Minneapolis flavor. You can find a bunch of photos of the store on its Facebook page here and read a little more about it here.

These sorts of shops, which are like little brick-and-mortar estys, are quickly becoming my favorite things to seek out in other cities. I can’t wait to have one in my very own hometown.