Gourmet Dogs at Dougie Dog, Homemade Root Beer & Capilano Dam

Last week I got a job! and so a celebration was in order! We decided we would splash out and go out for our first proper meal in Vancouver. That meant my first trip to Downtown which was super exciting! There were shops, restaurants and skyscrapers galore - I can't wait til we can explore it even more! 

For months before we left I was trawling through Vancouver food blogs and bookmarking all the best looking restaurants so there was quite a selection for me to choose from...but when it came down to it I knew Dougie Dog was where I wanted our first meal to be! 

They combine gourmet hot dogs, you've never seen such an extensive variety of hot dogs, with Vancouver's biggest selection of Root Beer! Hello? That's like two of my very favourite things right there! On their website they claim that they will recommend which Root Beer will go best with the dog you pick! How cool is that! 

So true to form, we asked our server and he recommend their own homemade brand of Root Beer which is blended with butterscotch.  At first I wasn't so sure, I'm not the biggest butterscotch fan but we went with it and oh my goodness it was amazing! It tasted like a Root Beer Float in a bottle! I fell in love! 

and then we come to the dogs! Well, where to begin! It was so hard to choose one because they all sounded amazing! Luckily the owner, Dougie himself, helped us with our selections! 

So he recommended the bacon chilli cheese dog for By, as it's one of their top sellers, and he steered my Mexican loving self to the Mexicana - guacamole, salsa, cheese and bacon all on a tasty dog! 

and that wasn't all! We had our very first try of Poutine - Canada's most famous dish that I was super excited about trying.  It's chips smothered in gravy and cheese curds and Dougie Dog's Poutine did definitely not disappoint.  

It was an amazing meal out, and I have a feeling we'll be back there soon - we won't be able to stay away! I have my eyes on their poutine topped dog for next time! 

A few days later after stumbling into the food court at Metropolis, Canada's 2nd biggest mall, we wandered past New York Fries and I saw they were selling Pulled Pork Poutine! As you may well know pulled pork just happens to be my favourite all time meat so we just had to try some! They were incredibly tasty and certainly brightened up my day, although we do think they were a little shy with the actual pork! 

and then at the weekend we headed to North Vancouver, like we love to do and we ended up here at Capilano Lake.  It was a cloudy day but I think it added to the ambience! 

We also checked out the dam which was pretty impressive, 

and there were tons of different hiking trails all around so we picked a quick one and off we went, because we were running out of time as we had to meet a lady to pick up some ski's I was going to buy from her (so we're now all ready for when the snow comes, yay!)

It wasn't quite long enough and we're definitely going to go back to soak in some more of that scenery! 

The leaves are just starting to turn now, 'Fall' is officially here! and with thanksgiving next week and halloween right around the corner I'm more than excited! We've even started learning thanksgiving songs at the school I work at - I didn't even know there was such a thing! 

and I'm still in awe every time we take a trip to the supermarket! This week my best finds were Presidents Choice brand of ice creams which comes in tons of amazing flavours like root beer float! and peanut butter and jelly! how cool is that! 

and these crisps really tasted like hamburger - it was crazy! apparently they also have hot dog flavour so I'm going to have to try and track those down! 

and I let out a squeal of delight as I found key lime pie (my fave) and s'mores pie right next to each other! When pay day rolls around, you can bet that's the first thing I'll be adding to my trolley!