THE END.

The time has come. This is the final HotDogAWeek post. Our waistlines and cholesterol levels are probably rejoicing, but we are somewhat bittersweet as this blog comes to an end. Many people have told us that “A blog can’t just end,” or have asked “What’s next?” but to tell you the truth, we don’t really know!

This project started out as a joke, and on a whim decided to start a blog about our hot dog adventures. Alan and I both have always wanted a blog, but the idea of blogging about our lives seemed a little too pretentious. Somehow writing about us eating hot dogs seemed much more doable.

We’ve loved all the feedback we get from people, and have enjoyed finding out how many friends and family members read our blog. It’s been a fun way to stay connected, as odd as it may be.

To end, we decided to replicate our favorite hot dog from Tommy’s. Alan and I sometimes had differing opinions about the hot dogs we ate, but we both agreed that our favorite dog was definitely the Power Dog at Tommy’s.

We wanted to make sure we didn’t skimp on this hot dog. We got buns from the Provo Bakery (no 88 cent buns here!), and bought Hebrew National hot dogs. Although not as inexpensive as Bar S hot dogs, they also were about 289845 times tastier, and they didn’t make us gag.

We started off by grilling the hot dogs in a pan on the stove in Alan’s apartment. Alan then sautéed some onions and sauerkraut and heated a can of chili. We put the dog in the bun, topped it with the onions and kraut, followed by some melted cheese, chili, and finally yellow mustard. 

I must admit, these were pretty good dogs. Definitely not as good as the original, but the hot dogs themselves were really good as far as what you can find at a grocery store. I also really liked the combination of chili and mustard. It was fun to make these dogs at home, and definitely something anyone can replicate.

Alan (and his new 'stache)

Since when do I make hot dogs for dinner, and enjoy them? I’ve gained a lot of respect for good hot dogs and the people who sell and enjoy them.

The end of this blog marks the end of summer for me and Alan. Alan’s pool closed yesterday, and the weather’s already getting cooler. We’ve had a really great summer, but we’re also excited for the semester ahead of us. Alan will be graduating from BYU in December, and moving on into the real world shortly thereafter. I’ll be in the library enjoying the reading load that comes with being an English major. It’s a happy time to look back on the fun we had this summer and to look forward to what lies ahead. 

Thanks for reading!

BYU Creamery

So after a hot, fun, and busy summer it was back to school this week for Rachel and I. Despite all the time we'll now spend reading and doing homework and studying for exams I think we were both excited to return to class. This week was exciting for me especially since I experienced my last first day of class; I'm only taking 6 credit hours, mostly working, and I'll be graduating in December.

Since this week was all about getting back to school we decided to get hot dogs on the very campus of Brigham Young University at the Creamery on Ninth East. The BYU Creamery is famous for their dairy products including "Cookies and Cream Milk" and numerous flavors of ice cream. It also features a full service grill serving burgers and other items to order. The Creamery is not known for its hot dogs but we decided to give them a try anyway.

We decided to order hot dogs as part of kids meals which for $3.50 include a hot dog, a LOT of fries, a drink, and a serving of ice cream. The hot dogs come plain so for an extra 10 cents we ordered some grilled onions as well. The line for ice cream was pretty long so we decided to get our ice cream while we were still at the counter which meant we would be eating it well before our food was ready. Rachel ordered Marionberry ice cream and I ordered "Bishop's Bash" (obviously a Mormon inspired flavor of chocolate ice cream, caramel, and pecans). The ice cream was delicious as always and it was fun to start our dinner with dessert. Once we were done with the ice cream our food was ready. We topped our hot dogs in mustard. They were small and simple but they weren't bad dogs, at least not for the price. We ordered steak cut fries and garlic fries which were both very good. We of course ate them with fry sauce.

Bishop's Bash Ice Cream

Our hot dogs were served over a bed of fries. Weird.

We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves for the rest of the night but ended up at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in Provo Canyon. We went to a session called "Shivers in the Night" where we listened to five storytellers share scary tales. It was fun but a little chilly. It was also late so I fell asleep during the second and third stories and Rachel missed the fourth and fifth stories. This made talking about the stories we liked difficult, but it was still an interesting evening and a fun thing to do.

Well since summer is coming to a close and school is back in session it seems appropriate to wrap up our hot dog eating adventures. We're going to finish up by having some dogs on Labor Day and next week will likely be our last post. Its been a lot of fun, but there are only so many hot dogs one can eat.

The BYU Creamery on Ninth is located at 1209 N 900 E in Provo, Utah.

VANCOUVER!

Once again, this blog is starting with an apology for the belatedness of this post. Alan and I returned from Vancouver (WA) a little more than a week ago, but things have been hectic with work, moving apartments, new roommates, and school starting up in a couple days.

Anyway, after visiting Chicago and Alan's family, we flew from Chicago to Portland to visit my family and hometown. This flight turned out to be quite an . . . adventure. Scroll to the end for the complete story. 

Once we got to Portland, we drove over the Columbia River to my house in Vancouver. After an afternoon of recovery, we went to the Clark County Fair with my family and saw a monster truck derby, along with some farm animals and rickety rides.

We spent the next day exploring the Columbia Gorge. It was a beautiful, sunny day without a cloud in the sky. If you are from the area, you'll know how big of a rarity this in. We drove along the historic highway and saw a lot of different waterfalls, including Multnomah.

The next day we made our way up to Seattle, after spending the morning at the Portland Rose Gardens with my parents. We met up with my brother Chris and went to a Mariners/Red Sox game. The Mariners lost, but that's not to be unexpected.

In Safeco Field

After returning to Vancouver, Alan and I went to the Saturday Market in Portland. We explored the Pearl, Powell's, stopped at Voodoo donuts, and bought records. While we were there, we made our way over to Franks-a-Lot for our weekly hot dog. Franks-A-Lot is located in a unique A-frame shack in a Whole Foods Parking Lot on East Burnside. As Alan joked, a more appropriate name for the restaurant may be "Franks-in-a-Lot." This is by no means a temporary location. Franks-A-Lot has been open for more than a decade. 

This place has probably one of the more substantial menus that we've seen. There's quite a variety of different franks and sausages available, and all of them are huge. The toppings are unique and the flavors were nothing like we've tasted yet. We ordered a spicy Red Hot sausage topped with cheddar cheese, red onion, and kraut. We also ordered a cheese frank with sweet-hot mustard, relish, and kraut.

Unfortunately, Alan was quite under-the-weather. His tonsils were swollen and inflamed, and later that night we went to the urgent care for a misdiagnosis of tonsillitis and a prescription for some steroids. Upon our return to Provo, we found out that Alan actually had mono. Poor guy! 

We spent the rest of our trip taking it easy and took a day trip to the Oregon coast. We had a great trip, but it's nice to be back. :)

Not feeling too hot...but still pretty hot.

Franks-A-Lot is located on 2845 E Burnside St in Portland, OR.  

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More on the story of our flight to Portland:

We had a 5 a.m. flight, with a layover in Las Vegas, but ended up stuck in security lines for close to 45 minutes. Our flight departed while we were still in line.

Neither of us had ever missed a flight before, and I was honestly pretty nervous. Once we got to an info desk, the lady behind the counter told us to RUN to a gate at the opposite end of the airport to try and catch a connecting flight that would eventually get us to Portland.

I guess a lot of people missed their flights that day, because we were joined by quite a few other sprinters. I kind of felt like I was in an action movie or something, just without the music.

After a couple more failed attempts to make our way to Portland, we actually ended up on a direct flight, even sitting next to each other! We arrived half an hour after than we would have originally, and had a good laugh and a sigh of relief.