Most Comprehensive

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Minneapolis Institute of Arts: MIA's wonderfully interactive pages are everything a museum's website should be—fun and informative. As you browse MIA's extensive collection, you can zoom in on the art in minute detail, pretend you're an art collector and create your own collection of MIA works, and even send one of the treasures as an e-postcard. artsmia.org

MN Artists: To get a sense of the sheer depth and breath of the local arts scene, take a tour of this wonderfully comprehensive catalog of artists. Browse through samples of their work, find out what's showing at galleries and performance halls, and listen to podcasts of artist interviews. mnartists.org

Walker Art Museum: Keep up with the visual and performing arts scene with this treasure trove of information. Browse the collection, check out upcoming exhibits, listen to talks from artists and curators, and sample a first-rate stable of blogs, including the popular Off Center. walkerart.org

ACTIVITIES & ATTRACTIONS
Explore Minnesota: It isn't a critical guide to exploring Minnesota, but it is the most comprehensive—and the place to start if you're looking for weekend activities or getaways. exploreminnesota.com

HEALTH
Mayo Clinic: If you're looking for health information online, the Mayo Clinic's comprehensive site is the best first stop. It's friendly and easy to navigate, with a wealth of information on major diseases, symptoms, fitness, children's health, and drugs. It also has calculators for body mass index, heart rate, and calories, plus self-assessment tests for depression, alcohol use, and much more. mayoclinic.com

Minnesota Department of Health: Highly informative and easy to use. Find facts on diseases, state health statistics, advice on where to turn in emergencies, how to get a birth record, and more. health.state.mn.us

HOME & GARDEN
University of Minnesota Extension—Gardening: The best local resource for home gardeners, this rich and authoritative site offers advice on growing plants indoors and out, caring for lawns, dealing with garden pests, and more. extension.umn.edu/topics.html?topic=5

KIDS & FAMILIES
Twin Cities Mom: This first-rate parenting site isn't a nanny, but it's a blessing all the same for busy parents. It offers advice and resources on local playgroups, parks and play areas, free activities, restaurants where kids are served free, and parenting tips. twincitiesmom.com

LOCAL INTEREST & HISTORY
Minnesota Historical Society: You could spend weeks exploring the fascinating nooks and crannies of this massive website. Naturally, you'll find wonderful photos, facts on pioneers and Native Americans, accounts of major events, and biographies of important figures. But what makes the site so rich and enjoyable are the unexpected pages: Unusual maps to highway oddities and oversized statuary (www.mnhs.org/places/other/roadside). A comic book version of true stories of early Minnesota lumbering, saw milling, flour milling, and farming (http://discovery.mnhs.org/ConnectingMN). Historic shipwrecks (www.mnhs.org/places/nationalregister/shipwrecks). Info on how Anoka got its name and the derivation of hundreds of towns and lakes (mnplaces.mnhs.org/upham). mnhs.org

OUTDOORS
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: One of the best websites in the state—it's fun to navigate and packed to the gills with information on everything outdoors, including fall color reports (www.dnr.state.mn.us/fall_colors/index.html), everything you'd want to know about visiting state parks(www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/index.html), the best and most detailed topographic maps, lake finder, trout streams, and aerial photos of anywhere in the state (www.dnr.state.mn.us/maps), and more. www.dnr.state.mn.us

WEATHER
National Weather Service—Twin Cities: If you want to eliminate the middleman, weatherwise, go straight to the weather service's official site, complete with radar and satellite images, the latest weather news, and "This Day in Weather History." www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx