When you live in a place like Minnesota, every summer weekend is special and should be relished. I thoroughly enjoy an occasional trip "up north," but summer is my favorite season to stay in town. While friends are packing their cars on Thursday night for a hasty retreat from work to beat the heading-out-of-town-traffic on Friday, I may have dinner on the rooftop of The Woman's Club of Minneapolis. Although The Woman's Club has been around for over 100 years, the renovated rooftop just recently opened – offering spectacular views of Loring Park and downtown Minneapolis. At dusk on Thursday evenings, Patrick's Cabaret offers outdoor movies in their parking lot at Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue. It's like an urban drive-in theater – with a more eclectic selection of films. I rarely find myself stuck in traffic on a Friday night. Instead, I might walk to Minnehaha Park and stand in the spot where President Lyndon Johnson viewed Minnehaha Falls in the 1960s. I'll get in line at the Sea Salt Eatery – the wonderful restaurant in the old pavilion at the park. While I wait for a fish taco or an oyster Po' boy to be delivered to my table, I enjoy sitting outside, drinking an ice cold beer, watching like-minded souls enjoying a summer night in a city park. There is no better way to appreciate the progression of summer than visiting one of Minneapolis' many farmers markets and seeing what produce is being harvested each week. The granddaddy of farmers markets remains the behemoth on Lyndale Avenue North, though the Mill City Market and other farmers markets throughout the city offer a more interesting selection of locally grown items. And even a diehard Minneapolitan will occasionally venture into St. Paul – especially if the destination is to the colorful and tasty St. Paul's Farmer Market located in the heart of our capitol city. A midsummer's journey to St. Paul is also in order to see a production on the University of Minnesota's Centennial Showboat. Now moored on Harriet Island, this summer's production of Is There a Doctor in the House? runs through the end of August. Back across the river, the Guthrie Theater's summer production of When We Are Married brings together two luminous local stage talents – Linda Kelsey and Sally Wingert. Homegrown theater just doesn't get any better than this. A weekend in the city means no strategizing on Sunday morning about the best time to leave the cabin to avoid traffic. Rather, it's the perfect time to get out the bicycle and take to the 80-plus miles of off-street bike trails in the city. While biking along the Midtown Greenway, stop for a snack at the Midtown Global Market (the old Sears building). The perfect ending to a Sunday is to take in a movie at the Riverview Theater at 38th Street and 42nd Avenue – one of the few remaining neighborhood cinemas in the Twin Cities. At $3 for admission, it really doesn't matter what movie is showing. It's the ideal venue in which to cool off after a hot summer-in-the-city weekend. And it sure beats sitting in traffic on Interstate 94.