Whatever you’re looking for, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you found it in Frederick, one of the most interesting places I’ve been to shop, gawk, or simply be struck dumb by the sheer diversity of things that people buy and collect.

Now, I should probably warn you: this place is addictive. Every time we go there – and we go there a lot, we seem to find some new place we hadn’t been to before. Recently we discovered Capa Imports, which boasts a fine selection of Turkish rugs and crafts. Astonishingly, their prices aren’t in line with prices we noted on a recent trip to Istanbul.

When my son was doing a report on Kenya, we made a beeline for Frederick, where we found an authentic Masai drinking gourd (the tribesmen carry that blood-and-milk concoction that’s the staple of their diet in them). This interesting show-and-tell item set us back a mere $12. That brings up another point about shopping in Frederick: You’ll pay a lot less here than you will in such well-known but overpriced places as Georgetown or Alexandria.

Frederick is noted for its many antique emporiums, particularly Emporium Antiques, a vast rabbit warren of 130 affiliated dealers selling, well, everything. The antique sellers are clustered mostly along East Patrick and Carroll Streets, with others on East Street near Shab Row. One of the notable features of Frederick antique dealers is that if you’re restoring an old house, you won’t find a better place to locate that light fixture, glass panel, iron railing, porcelain basin, wooden shutter, or other salvageable/recyclable bit lacking from your old house. The Frederick antique hounds apparently arrive just before the demolition crew and carry everything of interest off from buildings slated to come down.

My husband’s an antique junkie, so I’ve been taken (sometimes unwillingly) through just about every antique shop in town. To be honest, there are only so many pieces of Depression-era glass I can stomach. My favorite shops are the quirky ones, such as Frederick Junction (310 E. Market St.), which sells model trains - and nothing but model trains. Almost the entire shop is taken up by an oversized train layout. The trick is getting your child (or husband, same difference) out of the shop. Luckily, the proprietor understands. He’ll even patiently demonstrate what each switch on the operating panel does.

Whatever else we may have bought, we never leave Frederick without stopping by the Stone Hearth Bakery (131 East Street) to buy one or two loaves of their outstanding bread. In fact, I’ll confess right here and now that we’ve come home and basically had bread - and little else – for dinner.