You have to hit Baybrook at the right time to get the maximum pedestrian value out of it, but if you do, there's no finer walking arena in the city. (No point trying this on a Saturday afternoon.) It takes two laps around to walk a mile and the building is unlocked at 7 a.m., leaving a full three hours before the stores open. Baybrook can draw a healthy crowd during those hours (or it can be empty), but these people are there to exercise and not socialize, and so the air of stillness inside can rival that of a mausoleum or cathedral. Especially compared to the chaotic construction atmosphere outside — the extensive renovations are projected to be complete by the holidays — walking inside Baybrook can be a religious experience, no lie. Get in the zone, and it feels like you could walk until your legs fall off...or the shoppers show up.

You don't want to drop off your precious pup with just any doggie day care. You want a safe, clean, fun, engaging environment where dogs get to romp and play and get a few hugs. That's the Houston Dog Ranch. It is styled after an old Western town complete with a saloon, hotel and bunk houses. Each building is actually a private cabin with a porch, patio, ceiling fan, flat-screen television, air conditioning and homey furnishings including soft bedding, rugs and chairs. Each dog enjoys off-the-leash individual and group play, social interaction sessions, nap time and water play. Plus, wading in the farm's bone-shaped swimming pool is always fun. There's even cuddle time for less active dogs. While the staff uses positive behavior reinforcement with the dogs throughout the day, private training, good citizenship classes and agility training are available for a small extra fee. Staff members live on site and everyone at the farm has received pet first aid training.

READERS' CHOICE: The Pooch Pad

So if you're going to spend three-months salary on an engagement ring (that's the general guideline), you want to make sure you get the most wonderful, beautiful, spectacular diamond you can, right? And at the fairest price possible. That's where Helzberg Diamonds comes in. Morris Helzberg started the company in 1915 and expanded from one store to hundreds across the country, building a solid reputation for quality gems and excellent service along the way. Warren Buffet, a man who knows value, purchased the company in 1995. Helzberg consistently exceeds customer expectations with a full range of services including in-store viewings, Price Lock™ layaway, repairs and resetting services on site and an inventory that includes diamonds that range from $1,000 to $299,109.65.

For mysterious reasons, Houston's municipal pound — BARC — only accepted animal fosters who lived in the city's limits. But in 2015, BARC expanded the boundaries to 15 miles outside those limits, and we couldn't be happier. Houston is blessed with so many people willing to offer their time — and open their homes — to animals in need, so it's wonderful that now even more folks can help. If you're not sure if you live inside the 15-mile radius, just go to the link above and type in your address. If you've been wanting to foster for a while but never got around to it, there's no better time to get involved. You'll not only make a world of difference for a dog or cat in need, you just might wind up making a new best friend.

There are malls, and then there's the leviathan otherwise known as The Galleria. Developer Gerald Hines started planning the indoor mall back in the 1960s, and he drew on the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a shopping arcade in Milan, Italy, as inspiration for his shopping extravaganza. The result was The Galleria, which was a marvel when it opened in 1970 since it was anchored by Neiman Marcus, had a hotel right inside the mall and featured that wonderful indoor skating rink that's open year-round. Decades later The Galleria, which features more than 2 million square feet of space, is still the place to go when you're looking to do some real shopping or simply to people-watch — this is a spot where the interesting, the strange, the hilarious and the rich and famous mingle with us common folk. (The crazed holiday shoppers are an added bonus once we get past mid-October.) If you get bored with all that shopping and gawking at fellow shoppers, there's always skating on the ice rink, or watching people fall down on the ice rink.

Whether you're looking for the perfect protein shake or a particular vitamin supplement that your best friend swears will make you stop bruising like a peach, Total Nutrition in the Heights is the place to go. Unlike most places that just hand over the vitamins, the folks at Total Nutrition are trained to help you figure out what sort of vitamin supplements you actually need to help you, whether you're trying to up your iron balance or get your body to blast through that next run with energy to spare.

You're coming to the rodeo anyway, and you're probably in the mood: Why not pick up some new Western threads while you're there? Within the vastness of NRG Center, an entire row of merchants like Cavender's and Pinto Ranch set up tent-like structures whose inventory can't quite compare to their brick-and-mortar sites but is still more than enough to get you looking like you just came in off a trail ride. (Considering the area is also full of mattress stalls, jewelers, farm equipment, bleachers and lots of livestock, you may not have even noticed them before; that's okay.) You could always go out and get this stuff on your own during some other time of year, but that would require a separate trip and the timing just wouldn't be right anyway.

READERS' CHOICE: Cavender's

There are places to buy running gear and then there's Luke's Locker, which takes that concept to a whole other level. We love this place because the staff is a crew of extremely cheerful and incredibly helpful running experts. They have all the gear you could possibly imagine and a few things you never thought actually existed. Plus, the salespeople know their stuff. Consult them, and they'll look at your foot and watch you trot up and down the main aisle of the store as many times as it takes to be sure you get running shoes that will get you through your marathon and not shred your feet to pieces before you hit mile 10.

Revival Market has become an important local stop for Houstonians seeking nose-to-tail cuts of beef, heritage breed pork, lamb and chicken, as well as occasionally available seasonal game meats. This is made possible largely by the skills of Revival's head butcher and charcutier, Andrew Vaserfirer, who brings a passion for specially raised meats that he butchers and prepares in-house. All the animals used are antibiotic-free and pasture-raised, and Vaserfirer brings the best of locally raised meats to the tables of Revival's customers. The shop's meat case is a carnivore's dream, and it's well worth a visit to see Vaserfirer's mouthwatering work firsthand.

8th Dimension just keeps getting bigger and better. The store is moving to a new location across the street from the old one (opening August 26) that expands the retail space and opens up 8th Dimension's gaming/event area to more than three times the original size. The store continues to offer its awesome and oft-packed Ladies' Nights as well as niche nerd concerts like Adam WarRock and Eliza Rickman. A long-running partnership with Alamo Drafthouse Cinema brings in many cooperative events that capitalize on our current golden age of superhero movies, and the store itself is always well-stocked and home to the most knowledgeable comic staff in the city.

READERS' CHOICE: Bedrock City Comic Company­