Not sure why someone would need a hybrid bike! A hybrid bike is sort of like a cross bike but with flat bars instead of drop bar. On long rides drop bars offer more hand positions then a flat bar will so you will be more comfortable with drop bars found on cross bikes. Either bike can do mild off road riding if you need to, which means they can also handle pot hole streets and jumping curbs with ease. Either bike should come with eyelets for fenders on the front and panniers on the rear...but always make sure don't assume!!

Anyway the Motobecane that ToastyToad mentioned is a good bike, he got here: http://www.bikesdirect.com/ Just click on the hybrid tab to see those and click on the road tab then cyclocross to see those. The Giant is a nice bike too so look at that one as well, but also look at Raleigh, Fuji and Kona line of bikes; and try to find closeouts on last year's models instead of buying 2012 model.

I would stay away from bikes with shock forks unless your going to riding in rough off road stuff, they weigh a lot especially on lower end bikes, and add to the cost of the bike which means they had to put something else cheap on the bike to make up for the cost of the fork to keep the price around $500 vs a non shocked bike. And from your description of what surfaces you'll be riding on it didn't sound like you'll be needing a bike with shocks.