Chicagoing: The Dog-walking Dessert Tour

I recently found out our neighborhood has become an official tourist destination. While most tourists don't venture far from the downtown area, with several nationally recognized restaurants right on our block, we've noticed many tourists making the 2 mile trek--mostly via cab.They also just named the Michelin Awards, which is supposed to be a really big deal for restaurants. They actually sneak out in the night and spray paint a stencil of the Michelin man to let them know they won.
Since we are always out walking the pooches, we've gotten to know some of the most efficient routes for sampling the best wares on our street, plus, I love reading tour books' one day itinerary, so here is our version of a dog-walking dessert tour in Chicago.
We start at Black Dog Gelato.

This nondescript storefront has bright green benches, but loads of amazing gelato flavors. From Goat Cheese Cashew Caramel, Sesame Fig Chocolate Chip, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and Whiskey Bacon. Or amazing sorbets like Cucumber Rosewater Sorbet (my favorite!), cranberry, and lychee. 
When we had Wilma in the summer, we came here nearly every day. Here are the pooches waiting patiently while I get our order:

 Walk with your dog east down Iowa street. This is a residential street where the neighbors work together to grow flowers and mini-gardens in the sidewalk areas.

This will lead you to Hoosier Mama Pie Company.

They're this tiny little shop that serves amazing pie. They're so good they've been featured in Bon Appetit; plus, they have 'flights of pie slices' each Friday. Our all time favorite is the peanut butter pie with gingersnap crust and the chocolate creme pie.

Walk down Chicago Avenue to Manee Thai to pick up a freshly blended bubble tea. Keep walking down Chicago Avenue until you get to La Farine Bakery. 

The owner has immersed himself in the art of bread baking and supplies bread for some of the top restaurants in Chicago. We get their ciabatta rolls on a nearly weekly basis, plus they have all these pastries:

You can even head across the street to Eckert Park to picnic and eat your wares. The one caveat for this tour is to make sure you have another human with you to actually go in and pick up the food. For several reasons, we will never leave our dogs tied up outside or unattended, if only for a minute. People don't realize how many dog thefts there are in the city; plus, there was this terrible story of a an older dog stolen from his locked kennel in the suburbs. I guess the only reason I don't weigh a million pounds is because I don't always have someone walking with me to watch the dogs while I go in to get the food.

Chicago Fall Tourist with Your Dog (and some Winners)

 After receiving a summer-full of some fantastic posts, we learned so many things we could do with our dogs. While we're sad to see the series go, it did inspire us to be creative and continue be a Tourist in Our Own City with the pooches, even though the great weather and summer festivals are over. Here are some ways to be a Tourist with Your Dog in Chicago during the fall:

Appreciate Fall Foliage in Turn-of-the-Century Parks 

 Through our SociaBulls walks we've been exploring more of the urban parks around the city. While they were gorgeous in the summer, we're excited to see how these Victorian-style parks look decked out in fall colors. Plus, it's even better with the company of 20+ of our favorite dog friends.

Take the Dog-Walking Desert Tour 

 We wrote before about the dessert tour we like to take in our neighborhood. We're excited to load up the pooches backpacks, pick up some fresh-baked ciabatta bread for some grilled cheese and tomato soup and finish with some pumpkin pie.

Take Downtown Art Walks

 Tourists flock downtown during the summer making it way too crowded for the pooches. Now we can catch a cab with the pooches and visit some of the city's outdoor art. I don't think the pooches have ever seen a  Picasso statue before.


Have 'Crisp Weather' Impromptu Picnics 

We love having impromptu picnics while on our daily walk, and though the weather is getting cooler, we can still grab a foldable pizza slice from Paula & Monica or a hot chocolate and baguette.
Does anyone else have any fun fall-weather activities you do with your pooches?

And Now for Some Winners....
Miss M and Mr. B wanted to use the Tourist in Your Own City Series to donate to the rescues of choice to the 2 posts with the most comments. The pooches will be donating $75 to Heart of America Humane Society to support dogs like foster dog Ginger in Kansas, City. And they will be donating another $75 to East CAN in Nashville which helps dogs like Charlotte.

 Also, Sirius Republic decided to give away 2 collars, through random drawing, open to everyone who submitted a post. Levi is very proud of his very own Sirius "Adopt Me' collar advertising his single status. We ranked the posts in the order they ran, and we used a random number generator to pick the following winners: Shiva from Nova Scotia, and Sadie, Maggie, and Hurley from Portland. Congrats!