There are so many suggestions here I don't know what to do! Thanks everyone. How will I decide what's best...and I still have the evening to figure out!
I'm wondering...will we want to hop on another form of transportation--right after flying in and getting to our hotel? If we could take off on foot for our eating adventure(we walk a lot) that would be perfect. It seems though that the places mentioned would
involve riding more...and yet they seem like great places. I hesitate to even bring this up after all your great suggestions, but IF you were to take off and foot and hit 3-4 places...what would you suggest. Perhaps some of these can be walked to already. Thanks again.
If you are sick of this--that's fine! Your efforts are not appreciated..just trying to think it all through

Sorry, I meant your efforts ARE appreciated!

Thank you for the kind words, CAPH52.

ok, back to downtown then... How about start in River North at Portillo's for a Chicago 'dog, Uno's for deep dish, the bar at Frontera for Rick Bayless's inventive Mexican (try the ceviche) and margaritas, Wow Bao for walk-up Asian buns, Mr. Beef for classic Italian Beef and sausage, then maybe across the river to the Loop for Frangos at Macy's, sauerbraten and a beer at the bar at Berghoff, Italian appetizers at the bar (upstairs) at Italian Village?

This may just work....I got to try and map it all out with distances and all.
Could we do it on foot...we need to keep exercising to eat. Are any of those places close to a great bakery with wonderful cookies by chance? We might need more sweets ...we can get Frangos here in Minnesota.

Try Moonstruck chocolate. They have a place on Michigan Ave., a few blocks between the Trib building and Millenium Park. They also sell in the basement food court at Macy's.

Laurelee, please be sure to give a trip report for this "food tour" portion of the trip. As a Chicago resident, I am interested to hear about where you go and how you liked it.

Yes, Moonstruck Chocolates is a good idea. I'm still looking for that great cookie though...two of us are cookie fanatics. Any ideas to a bakery we can get to on foot from these last mentioned places......?
Do you know of any good pizza place that sells it by the slice at noontime?
Thanks....again on foot from mag. mile..
I'll be sure and post..this is happening early August...

Nothing comes to mind re: cookies downtown, but I don't spend a ton of time down there.

If you are willing to leave the downtown area, try Dinkel's on Lincoln Ave in Lakeview -- hugely popular, been there forever.

http://www.dinkels.com/

The Bleeding Heart Bakery -- all organic, pricey but delicious, run punk rockers -- on Belmont Ave, just east of Damen Ave, also in Lakeview/Roscoe Village area.

http://www.thebleedingheartbakery.com/

If you're still interested in Andersonville, try the Swedish Bakery as well, as Alyssa already mentioned. Really terrific sweets. A coworker of mine lives right near it and brings cakes and other things into work frequently; they disappear instantly.

http://www.swedishbakery.com/

For cookies specifically, my top choices would be: Sweet Mandy B's, 1208 W Webster, in the Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood, and Sensational Bites, 3751 N Southport, in the Southport corridor.

As to pizza by the slice, I may be mistaken, but I don't think this custom has caught on in Chicago, and I can't think of a single place to suggest.

I don't see anything in your OP that tells exactly when you're going to be here. Forgive me, if I missed it farther down. But, as to the pizza by the slice, my son noticed that an Ian's, a chain he loves in Madison, is set to open near Wrigley. They most definitely do pizza by the slice!

http://www.ianspizza.com/

For pizza, I would share a small deep-dish or stuffed pizza at one of the Chicago mainstays.

Giordano's has individual-sized stuffed pizzas, which would approximate a slice.

None of the places I know with pizza by the slice are particularly known for pizza. Maybe l'appetito in the Hancock building?

Recently when in Chicago, my son got a individual pizza at Giordiano's. From what I can remember, it was sliced in four pieces. This might work for you.

Great suggestions! I think I should be able to put this all together. I gotta start looking a maps and have my plan but the suggestions are great. Andersonville is still an option....Swedish Bakery(as well as other cookie/chocolate options) sounds good--I think I've gotten great info. to make this really fun. We got together yesterday and I told my friends I had A LOT of people helping me...but they didn't catch on.
I'll keep you posted...this happens Aug. 4!

Since it's a Monday, the lines at Hot Doug's will be much smaller than they are on Saturdays. I strongly suggest getting a sausage there. A foodie friend of mine came to visit a couple weeks ago, and did a 4-day food tour. Hot Doug's was his favorite spot!

Take a peek at the specials to get an idea...he does more standard fare, too, on the "menu" link.

http://www.hotdougs.com/specials.htm

I'm going for lunch tomorrow...definitely going to rock the pheasant and duck!

The tour is on Monday:(HELP!)
1st: Hot Dougs ( Red line-help me here)

2nd: Is there anywhere else we should go to while in this area? Can we walk it?

3rd: Andersonville(take red line to Berwyn stop--walk west through neighborhood of old homes)
Options to stop at-Swedish Bakery,
Middle Eastern Bakery, Jin Jin, Reza's
Ann Sather...help me again!
OR:
Go to Lakeview neighborhood to Pastoral, D'Affinois, what else?

Would Fox and Obel at Navy Pier be worth a stop.
Somewhere in all of this a stop for beer samples or great Margarita!

Sorry I'm so confusing!

Before getting any further distressed about this, laurelee, have you looked at a map of Chicago to understand the distances involved between these neighborhoods? Two or three miles is an awfully long hike for someone unaccustomed to it.

You can go to the CTA's website, under the Map System section, which breaks down the city into just a few areas (really not into neighborhoods, though) to see where the bus routes and El lines are.

If nothing else, you can go to Metromix and go into the particular restaurants/places you are wanting to try. There is a Google map on each restaurant's page where you can see what else is in the immediate area by type of establishment (bar/tavern; restaurant; attraction; and so forth). Not only that, but you can zoom out of that immediate area and go in any direction, to see where you are in relation to other areas.

With respect to Hot Doug's, it's not close to the Red Line. Are you cabbing it from whichever Red Line station you are choosing? Taking the bus?

Fox and Obel is not at Navy Pier. It's located at North Pier, which is a couple of blocks west of Navy Pier.

I am not familiar with this restaurant - D'Affinois. Where in Lakeview is it supposed to be located? Or are you talking about particular cheeses: fromage d'Affinois, pave d'Affinois?

Hot Doug's is 2 miles west of the red line, in a fairly residential area. There is no direct way to get there without a car--from downtown, it's El (blue line is closer--about .75 mile), bus or walk, then back.

You'd likely want to take the Belmont bus rather than walk to the red line, especially with the heat that's forecast. If you don't want to jump back on public transit, I'd stick to Lakeview, which is directly East.

Hot Dougs is great, but you're going to spend some serious time on (and waiting for) public transit. Just keep that in mind.

Yes, I can see I'm really off with some of my plans as I do more searching. Sorry about that. I'll look at some of the precious mentioned websites.