Oops, I hit post accidentally. It's probably obvious both of us like books (she collects old books). I like antiques, we both like music, and we prefer funk to chain shops and stuff we can find everywhere.

Thanks in advance!

Sara

Well, my favorite area in minnepolis is the uptown area. I'm not sure where your conference is but its a hip area where you can people watch anybody from tree huggers, preppies, business man, punkers, homeless whatever they are there. Very few chain places I think a famous daves and a gap. Other then that great used bookstores probably 2 or 3 fun trendy restaurants all along a few blocks. If you need any specifics I'm your man.

TTT- come on give this gal some other ideas.

When I visited Minneapolis for the first time, I was struck by how flat it is, and as such I just started walking and walking in one random direction. It's a great city for walking (provided it isn't 37 below zero) so you can be sure that she'll be able to occupy her time happily.

Uptown area (Lake and Hennepin) and Lyn-Lake area (Lake and Lyndale) both would have what you're looking for, and are about 8 blocks or so from one another.

When are you coming? There's a used bookstore (Magers & Quinn) on Hennepin just south of Lake Street - you can look at their website at www.magersandquinn.com

That area is also really close to Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles, so if it's soon it may still be warm enough to walk around for a bit. There are some antique stores in the neighborhood - drive up and down either Lyndale or Hennepin and you'll find several within 5-6 blocks in either direction.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I waited til the last minute (we left the day after I posted) and fortunately was able to look just moments before we hit the road, but didn't have time to reply til now. We did indeed find the Uptown area and it was great. Thanks! We also spent a fair amount of time driving around thanks to bad directions from a friend (grin) so we visited downtown, Dinkytown and a few other neighborhoods and had a blast. We're going to plan a longer trip back with some other friends so we can spend more time. Thanks again! What a great town for those of you who get to be there year-round!

Sara