Speed dating

NATURE: TREE’S COMPANY

Take in the greenery and get some fresh air with a bike date featuring the great outdoors.

It’ll be easier to wait for those sweet end-of-date kisses when you start with dessert. Pop inside 1 Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream (5337 W Devon Ave, 773-763-9778) just long enough to get a cone of Halley’s Comet (vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream with caramel and Rolo-like chocolate-covered caramel cups), Ultimate Oreo or any of the other 42 flavors. If you can bear one more moment indoors, take a gander at the ever-changing decor; right now it’s circus-themed, but next month the joint is going ’60s, including Blue Meanies on the walls. Eat your ice cream while sitting on the plastic lawn chairs out front—it’s not posh, but you’re eating ice cream in the sunshine—what more do you want?

Head west three blocks along Devon, cross Caldwell Avenue, enter the North Branch Trail at the northwest corner of Devon and Caldwell, and continue west along the bike path.

In about a mile, you’ll have the choice to bear right to continue on the path or bear left to exit. Go left and pedal until you come out through the parking lot—hot dogs await. You’ll emerge at Milwaukee and Devon Avenues, within sight of 2 Superdawg (6363 N Milwaukee Ave, 773-763-0660). Eat a pure-beef Superdawg with all the fixins at one of the outdoor tables, under the spooky gaze of the gigantic, glowering Mr. and Mrs. Superdawg on the roof. Now you’re fueled up and ready for the full nature immersion that is the rest of the North Branch Trail. Consider stopping at the 3 Walgreens (6310 N Nagle Ave, 773-774-2225) across the street for some cold bottles of water. It’ll make you look thoughtful.

IT’S ONLY NATURAL Get your date into a birds-and-bees mood at the Botanic Garden.

Photo: Courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden, Robin Carlson

Get back on the trail, bearing left when you come to the fork. The parks-and-picnics vibe soon turns to lush woods, where overhanging branches shade the path. If you and your sporty snookums are up for it, keep pedaling for 14 traffic-free miles to the 4 Chicago Botanic Garden (1000 Lake-Cook Rd, Glencoe, 847-835-5440; free, since bikers don’t pay the parking fee). Walk past the curry plant in the sensory garden to catch its Devon-style delicious smell. On weekends at 1:30 and 2:30pm, local toques such as TRU’s Gale Gand (May 31) and Sola’s Carol Wallack (June 8) cook up a storm in an open-air amphitheater. Too tired to bike home? Pedal a mile east along Lake-Cook Road to the 5 Braeside Metra station (10 N Saint Johns Ave), and catch the southbound train to the Loop’s Ogilvie Transportation Center. The ride gives you plenty of time to sneak an arm around your hottie’s seat back.

DISTANCE 17 miles (one way)

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