You're an insomniac. Or you work the swing shift. Or maybe you just like to howl when the moon comes up. In any case, you've noticed by now: This ain't Vegas, baby. The City of Destiny definitely sleeps. But there's still fun, food and shenanigans to be found after your neighbors have gone beddy-bye.

Metropolitan Market, 2420 N. Proctor St., Tacoma.
Gotta admit, there's something nice about grocery shopping in the wee hours. You can stock up on flatiron steak without having to dodge soccer moms' shopping carts, or peacefully flip through Men's Health over by the magazine rack. Plus, it's a good people-watching spot right around 3 a.m.

A fall harvest is all about harvesting the bounty, so send your guests with baskets full of home grown produce. Use a recipe of your favorite fall soup as a tag and include the vegetables needed in the basket. If you don’t have your own vegetable garden, consider joining a Community Supported Agriculture program. In doing so, you invest in a local farm and receive the fruits of their labor. Full Circle Farm offers CSA programs for families of all sizes and budgets with pickup locations throughout the city.

Shopping List: Basket, $8.99, from Metropolitan Market

EXPLORE

The Grocery Store
What: Newest permanent exhibit is a gourmet Metropolitan Market in miniature.
Why: Truffle oil for tots.
When: Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sat. & Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Where: The Children’s Museum, 305 Harrison St.

Grocery stores say they’ve seen the popularity of their prepared foods grow as consumers try to save time, money and sometimes calories. And the economic downturn has helped boost the trend as folks trade down from restaurants to dinner at home. So grocers are boosting the selections in response to people’s growing appetite for prepared foods.

“It is definitely a growing market,” said Angela Rihacek, executive product development chef for Metropolitan Market, based in Seattle.

“We’re seeing more people come in for home-meal replacement,” she said Friday. “I think people are moving away from restaurants.”

“It is a growth area,” said Brad Halverson, Metropolitan marketing vice president. “We have heard from customers that they are time-pressed, they have places to go, they want us to close that gap and they want to eat well. They want options.”

Ever wonder what your kid would eat if he/she could shop by himself? If you want to know, take him/her to the new exhibition at the Children's Museum. The new mini size Metropolitan Market will show you what your kid really wants.

They get carts, then they run around and start taking all the food off the shelves. There are scales to weigh the produce, check out counters, flowers and even a choice between regular macaroni and cheese and organic macaroni and cheese.

When the 6 year old boys came in, I admit I wasn't sure this would be their thing. That is until I heard one shout " I will get all the ice cream in the freezer, I will, all of it!"

Last Saturday, The Children’s Museum unveiled a new mini-grocery store. The 740-square-foot child-size "Metropolitan Market" is named for the upscale food giant, the primary donor for the exhibit.

The grocery includes includes shelves of canned foods, a dairy case, fake freezers, baskets of fruits and veggies, breads, a make-your-own sandwich deli and buckets of bright flowers.

The love of shopping, the love of getting and spending, this requires arduous training. Something few parents have time for these days because they're doing so much getting and spending themselves.

Enter the Children's Museum, a 30-year-old institution for the families of Seattle's youngest, with over 20,000 square feet of exhibits at Seattle Center. Hands-on learning, open-ended exploration, creative self-expression, parent-child cooperation, multi-cultural understanding...all the feel-good buzzwords of our time. (Why can't Barack and McJohn, Big Joe and Little Sarah just get along like the tots over there?)

On Saturday, the museum introduces it's newest permanent exhibit - a "fun size" Metropolitan Market grocery store. Members get a first peek from 8 to 10 a.m. before it opens to the public