Friday, August 26, 2011

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 o2845 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.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

CHICAGO

Looking north from Sears Tower
So first off, sorry! I realize it is Thursday already, but Rachel and I both have been extremely busy the last several days in CHICAGO! We just finished a five-day trip that was packed to the brim with things to do. We pretty much spent every free minute sleeping and I’m still way tired. When planning our trip five days seemed like plenty of time, but when you have a huge list of things to do, foods to eat, and your family to visit, five days can fly by pretty fast.

We did plenty. Our first day there we spent a good while driving around the southwest side of the city so I could show Rachel the places I spent growing up. We spent a good amount of time around my neighborhood and also my old neighborhood before heading up to Bobak Sausage Company, a maker of Polish sausages, where we got a good look at several types of encased meat and ended by eating a few different Polish foods. That night we went to my friend Christina’s wedding where we met a lot of people and had fun pretending to be able to dance to Latin music. We decided it was time to go once I started falling asleep on the dance floor.

We spent the next morning taking a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park. We were given an hour-long tour by a knowledgeable guide in a beautiful home (and studio). 
In front of the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio in Oak Park, IL
We then went downtown to meet up with my friend Dan who I met my freshman year of high school. Dan is a 7th-generation Chicagoan who is very proud of his city and hesitant to do anything touristy. We dragged him along to Millennium Park and had him take a few pictures of us along the way as we did several more touristy things. Dan played like a Champion.
The Bean
After walking around quite a while we decided to get hot dogs at Portillo’s, likely Chicagoland’s most famous hot dog chain. As always is the case at Portillo’s the lines were long and the restaurant was loud with hot dog-loving Chicagoans. Rachel and I ordered the classic Chicago hot dog, a Maxwell Street Polish, cheese fries, a Coke (Dr. Pepper is apparently hard to come by in Chicago eateries), and the Chocolate Cake shake (which came highly recommended by Dan; we later found out the Chocolate Cake shake he ordered was his first). Our food was delivered to us by a loud and colorful lady who sang/rapped when your food was ready. The food was great as always at Portillo’s. This was Rachel’s first Maxwell Street sausage. Along with deep dish pizza and Chicago-style dogs, the Maxwell Street Polish sausage is synonymous with the City of Chicago. It’s a tasty yet simple dog made with grilled Polish sausage topped with grilled onions and yellow mustard. It’s probably my personal favorite way to eat a hot dog. The chocolate cake shake was also very good. Writing about it is making me want one right now.
Portillo's Hot Dogs
A Maxwell Street Polish Sausage
The rest of the trip was spent mostly with family. We had some thing crust pizza from Barraco’s, ate White Castles, went to a family reunion, spent the day at Six Flag’s Great America, walked around downtown Chicago some more, stood 1451 feet above the ground in Sears Tower, made a short trip across the border to Indiana, and spent even more time with family. It was a great trip and it was fun to share my hometown with Rachel.
Standing on the ledge, a cantilievered plexiglass box that juts out from Sears Tower. 

Sitting on the ledge
There are several Portillo’s locations across Chicagoland. We visited the one at 100 West Ontario Street in Chicago.

Monday, August 1, 2011

J Dawgs

This last week, my friend Adriel left rainy Washington to come visit me in Provo! I was very happy to see her for a few days after spending so much time apart away at school. I was really glad that she and Alan could meet after hearing so much about each other.

As part of Adriel’s welcome to Provo and BYU, we took her to J Dawgs on our weekly hot dog excursion. J Dawgs is a staple in many students’ diets. It’s inexpensive (probably one of the cheapest places we’ve gone to get a hot dog) and it’s right next to campus. During the school year, there is a line that wraps outside the building around lunchtime.

J Dawgs started as a small red shack (pictured above) in 2004, and was opened by a down-and-out BYU student. The restaurant has now moved to the building next door, but the menu is still very simple. You choose either polish or beef, and you can top it with any combination of their condiments. One of J Dawgs’ specialties is their Special Sauce, sort of a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce. If you’re a first-timer, be sure to ditch the ketchup and go for the Special Sauce instead.

This really is a great place to go. There are definitely no frills here, and might not be our top pick for a dog, but it’s got a great atmosphere and friendly employees (such as Alan’s friend Tom).

Many people have asked why we haven’t covered J Dawgs yet. One reason is that Alan and I both feel that a lot of people go to J Dawgs and J Dawgs alone to get their hot dog fix. We wanted to see what else was out there.

Another reason for delaying our visit is that this is where Alan and I first came up with our Hot Dog A Week Project, so we had to wait a bit before coming back. When we found out that Adriel was coming we knew it would be the perfect place to take her.

The rest of Adriel’s visit was spent exploring the best a Utah summer has to offer. We enjoyed lots of sunshine, swimming, HGTV, bike rides, Temple Square, thunderstorms, Park City, and hiking Y Mountain. 

On the top of Y Mountain
Friends since Kindergarten :)
J Dawgs is located at 858 N 700 E in Provo.


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