Paying the House Off

Normally when the economy falters a bit, it bad news for everyone. We can’t look at our 401ks – it’s painful. Thank goodness we won’t be retiring anytime soon. Wait, thank goodness? I want to retire now. Anyway, the economy. The good thing about the recent trouble is that interest rates have gone down. Oh, we aren’t buying another house but we are trying to refinance the loan on our current one. A few weeks back, our mortgage broker, emailed us and let us know it would be a good time to refinance our loan. We thought about it and when we found out that we’d be paying .75% less, refinancing sounded like a great deal.

Several rounds of paperwork and emails later, and we’re getting close to finalizing our loan. We had to have out house reappraised and we’re pleasantly surprised to find that it’s worth a little more than it was a 2 years ago. Lucky for us, a more valuable house means an even better rate. We’re looking at 1% less, a fifth less. We did the math and if we keep our payments the same (over paying each month) we would actually have our house paid off in 15 years. FIFTEEN YEARS! We going with a 30-year loan because the rate on a 15 year loan isn’t that much better and it’s nice to have the flexibility to pay less monthly if we needed to.

Micah was talking to a couple of co-workers about refinancing our loan and they told him that in the height on the real estate boom they bought their houses with loan interest rates of 18% and 22%. No, I did not mistype, I meant 22%. TWENTY-TWO percent. That outrageous. We couldn’t even stomach the 14% new construction loan. Ridiculous. I honestly can’t imagine borrowing money at that rate. Our car loan is 0.5% and student loans under 3%. I know credit card interest is around 20-25% but we pay down our balance every month which probably isn’t good for our credit in general but it keeps me from having an ulcer.

We’re really thankful to have such a low rate and to also have friends (mortgage broker) who looks out for us.

So here’s a question, if you were us, would you keep overpaying (by a lot) you home loan, or would you pay a little less every month and build up your saving? Enquiring minds (ours) want to know.

Better Late Than Never

We’ve had plans for MONTHS to get our emergency kit put together and just kept putting it off.  Of course the events of last week got us (finally) into gear.  We spent Saturday looking through our garage, picking up things from Target and making lists of documents we need to make copies of.

The picture doesn’t look like much but it’s 2 days of food, the ability to start a fire no matter the weather, light and radio through human power and the ability to purify our drinking water after we get through the 5 gallons we have stored in the garage.

Don’t worry, we have more supplies, this is just what we purchased.   We think we’ll have our kit complete by this weekend.  The questions are where to put it and how many days to have supplies for. 

Do you have an emergency/disaster kit?  If so, how many days can you and your family survive off it?

Mini Adventure : Salt Lake City

Before Crater Lake and after Idaho there was Utah.  From the moment we set foot (or wheel) into Utah, we were impressed.  The landscape was stunning and the colors really vibrant.  I wish there were pictures to share but of course I was driving and Micah was sleeping.  I did snap this one at a rest stop.

We drove through Salt Lake and headed for our home for the night, the Wasatch-Cache National Forest.  We put up our tent, spread out and enjoyed the cool temperatures.  The next morning we headed toward Timpanogos Cave National Monument only to find it was closed for the week.  We then headed for the lake, then our hotel.  After a shower and a nap, we set off for Temple Square.

We wandered around Temple Square for a while and took in the lovely buildings.  It is quite the spread.  Eventually we wandered into the Conference Hall and went on a mini tour of the facility.  The only place that I can compare the main hall to is the UN in New York.  Honestly, the place is MASSIVE.  I can’t even imagine it full.  Of course, Micah has the pictures and I forgot to ask him for them.  The tour was interesting.  It was like Church of Latter Days Saints (LDS) for dummies. I’ve always been fascinated by religion (even considered majoring in Theology) and walking through the halls basically being given a summary of the LDS faith through art was great.  Also, The view from roof was pretty good too.

Here’s the temple from the ground.

After the Temple Square and dinner, we decided to do something a little different and catch a Salt Lake City Bees minor league baseball game.  The stadium was great.  Very small with good views from anywhere.  We bought a place in outfield and enjoyed the grass and weather.

Eventually we had to leave the outfield for a covered seat as a storm was coming.  Luckily, we now had a view of a rainbow.

After breakfast the next morning, we left Salt Lake and headed west to Reno.  On our way we drove by the salt flats.  The white pile in the picture is salt at the Morton’s factory.

Eventually we drove through a desert of salt.  It was very cool but very weird.  I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road.

Eventually we passed through Utah and into Nevada which, unfortunately, was not as spectacular from our car.  I did manage to snap this picture.

We really liked Salt Lake City and were surprised by it.  Being the home of LDS, I assumed it would be really conservative.  I was prepared to cover my shoulders, knees and chest when out in public only to find lots of people running around in not so conservative clothing (apart from on Temple Square).  We both like to feel of the place and how outdoorsy it was for a city.  I actually think if I had to live inland, Salt Lake would be high on my list.  Salt Lake was a great place and I’m glad we gave it a chance.

All in all, the trip was a success.  We managed to get some time in cities but had a healthy amount of time outside.  We truly enjoyed the trip and were happy we decided on somewhere new.  Have you been pleasantly surprised by a place you thought you wouldn’t like or think twice about?

Mini Adventure : Crater Lake

So I’m skipping Salt Lake City and Utah for the time being because Micah has some of those pictures on his phone and hasn’t sent them to me yet.

After Salt Lake City and legging it through Utah and all of Nevada (with a night in Reno) we found ourselves at Crater Lake National Park.  Crater Lake was a last minute decision.  We knew we wanted to spend our final night on the trip camping.  We didn’t have a reservation but managed to snag one of the last spots in the park – literally. 

Crater Lake was STUNNING.  I mean really stunning.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking but I’ll say that we went for a couple mile hike early the next morning and the views were breathtaking.  The hike itself was pretty easy but the altitude made it hard. 

Day 1: The teaser

Day 2: Glorious

The park was a great end to the trip.  Actually, it wasn’t the end.  Micah made me walk through the Lava River Cave State Park which I didn’t like at first but turned out to be a great side trip.  OK, one last look at Crater Lake – this one might be my favorite.  Check out the reflection in the water!

Utah is hopefully coming tomorrow!

Mini Adventure : Idaho

Our latest adventure was definitely something new for us.  We decided to go on a road trip (not the new part) but decided apart from our first two nights of lodging, we wouldn’t really plan anything.  I don’t mean we wouldn’t pre-plan what we were going to do during the day but that we wouldn’t pre-plan where we were going.  We knew the trip would involve Idaho, Utah and some camping, but that’s it.  This is big for us (read me).  While I don’t plan each day down to the minute, I do like to know where we’re going to be each day and have a handy list of this we should see – a quasi plan.

Our only real decision was that our first destination would be Boise. I had been to Boise once when I was 8 years old when Dadtractor was doing some work for Seafirst Bank (now Bank of America).  I remember Boise being the kind of place I wouldn’t be visiting again.  I remember that there was nothing to do there and distinctly feeling people’s looks.  It wasn’t as diverse as it is now.  Again, these are all things I noted at 8 years old.  Micah felt the same way.  Our change of hearts was brought on by Sunset magazine.  They kept publishing stories about how great Boise was, so we decided to give the city another chance.  How often is Sunset wrong?

We started at the old Boise train station which provided some welcome air conditioning on a hot day.  It was a lovely old mission style building and reminded us of Santa Barbara.

From outside of the Train Depot you have a view of downtown Boise.  We were surprised at how flat Boise is.  Seattle is so hilly and vertical that we forget not all cities are that way.  We spent most of our day walk along the river in Boise and wandering through downtown when the temperature was bearable.  Before we retired for our afternoon nap, we decided to have lunch at the Boise Fry Company.

The Boise Fry Company serves local and sustainable burgers and fancy fries.  I say fancy because you can pick which type of potato you’d like your fries to be made out of.  This is Idaho after all.  You could chose from Russet, Gold, White, Sweet Potato, Yams, Purple and Okinawa.  You can also select your cut of fries.  Micah had shoe string russet fries with a locally raised bison burger and I had a regular burger with these…

I went with regular cut fries made from purple Peruvian potatoes.  So awesome!  They also have about 10 dipping sauces to chose from but we found that the only one we really liked was the Chipotle Fry sauce.  We were full and happy afterwards. 

After a hot evening exploring the Basque area of town (yes, they have one) we retired to our rooms where we planned where we were headed next.  We decided to head for a state park just outside of Salt Lake City for some camping and hiking. 

On the way down we crossed the Snake River (above) and headed towards Shoshone Falls.  Our plan was to have lunch and maybe go on a mini hike there.

Shoshone Falls falls was lovely.  It actually higher than Niagara Falls though not as full the day we were there.  The falls were located in a weird place.  You drive for miles through neighborhoods and farmland and then there it is.  Nothing fancy to build up the falls, just small random signs.  There are times on the drive that you wonder if you are going in the right direction.  Then you get there and it’s amazing.

We even got a nice rainbow to welcome us.

We went back to the falls lookout after lunch and as you can tell by the picture, we were hot, red and willing to skip the hike since it was over 100 degrees.  I’d say it was the right choice.

With the air conditioning blasting and a semblance of a plan hatched, we headed for Utah.  we definitely like Idaho, particularly Boise, the second time around and are glad we gave it another chance. 

Seven Links

I’m sure you’ve seen this Seven Links post on every blog out there but we were tagged by Maggie of A Long Far View, so here goes…

Most Beautiful

I think it go to be our Walking Dubrovnik post.  Dubrovnik is stunning from any angle which makes it impossible to take a bad picture there. 

Most Popular

This is going to surprise people but the post that has gotten the most hits on our blog is the Ultimate Plasti Dip DIY.  It got mentioned on some German car website where it became a hit.  Big thanks to Nicole for plasti dipping her car.

Most Controversial

Our posts are that controversial but we have had a few that have generated good discussion.  I thought this post would be a cat post but after reading over the archives, I decided our post about whether to go with Mint.com, Are You Mint(ed), was the most controversial.

Most Helpful

It seems our budget posts have been the most helpful, which makes sense.  The most helpful, or at least interesting, seems to be Owning a House Costs Money.  It took me a bit of time to calculate all the percentages so I’m happy it was helpful.

Post the Surprised Me

I’m going to use a previous answer and go with the Ultimate Plasti Dip DIY.  I thought this post would get a comment and maybe a few views.  I didn’t think it would be nearly as popular as it was.

Post I Feel Didn’t Get the Attention It Deserved

I’m going to deviate a bit and chose a guest post called The One Where We Both Got Away.  I wrote for She Likes Ruffles, He Likes Truffles and linked to it through 4024.  Come on people, I was mock charged by an Elephant.  I think that deserves more than one comment, even if the comment is about how dumb I was to run.

Post I’m Most Proud Of

I have two.  I think the first one is definitely Fingers Crossed – The Final.  It’s not a particularly interesting post but it does mark the end of the administrative journey of our house building project.  As far as the City of Seattle is concerned, our house is done.  We all know better though.

My second choice for different reasons is Mankhaka Primary School.  I think it gave readers a glimpse of what I see on my trips and maybe a few people, including ourselves, a little perspective. 

The Bonus

As this started as a house blog, I decided to share my favorite house post.  Of course it’s going to be the big reveal of my almost finished craft room (AKA Izzy’s room), Crafty, Crafty.

 

I hope everyone enjoyed this trip down blog memory lane.  Happy Monday!!

Sunday Suppers : Green Summer Sides

Before I share our three newest summer side dishes, I want to ask you all for a little advice.  As usual, my latest work travel plans have changed again (third time is the charm, right?) and I won’t be leaving on Wednesday as I thought.  It looks like the trip will be pushed back 2 weeks which may work out for the better.  I’ll get more Seattle summer AND it looks like a little Parisian rendezvous with Kate is in cards.  It will only be for a couple days but I’ll take it.  I’m looking for Paris recommendations.  We’ve got 2 days together and 3 nights (she has to work one day) and I want to see Paris but not feel overwhelmed.  The last time I was there I just turned 18 years old and I packed a lot into that trip.  This time, the only things on my agenda are to hang with Kate, visit the Musee de Orsay (it was closed when I was there last) and check out one of the many Parisian flea markets.  That’s all I’ve got.  Suggestions?  Great neighborhoods to stroll through?  Anything off the beaten path? Must try café?  I’m all ears!

So now that my plea for advice is over, let’s move on to food.  Because of the traveling and events of the summer, we haven’t been having large Sunday Suppers regularly.  We’re trying to bring it back and in the process have tried some new seasonal recipes.  Please excuse the pictures.  They are not my best.

First up, Creamed Avocado and Lime Chilled Pasta.  I was looking for something easy I could make and have as a picnic dinner.  We were driving up to Whistler and wasn’t sure where and when we’d be hunger for dinner and if we’d be near food.  I made this dish the night before and turned it into a side by adding some leftover shredded chicken we had. This dish was great -- very refreshing and satisfying.  It tastes and smells like summer.  I found this recipe on norikoburky.com via Pinterest.  I’m addicted to Pinterest (more on that later) and love it for recipes. 

Creamed Avocado and Lime Chilled Pasta

Chilled pasta coated with a simple-tasting creamed avocado sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2cup dry shell pasta or short pasta of your choice
• 1 ripe avocado
• handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2Tbsp lime juice
• 3Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1tsp garlic paste
• salt & pepper
• chopped cilantro and/or jalapeno for garnish

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to the package instructions. Drain well, set aside to cool.
2. Peel avocado and remove the pit. Put it in a food processor together with chopped cilantro, lime juice, mayonnaise and garlic paste. Blend it until it’s creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Cover it with plastic wrap and keep it in a refrigerator if you have time.)
3. Transfer the avocado sauce to a medium sized bowl. Add cooked pasta and toss them well. Sprinkle chopped cilantro and/or jalapeno on top.

Note: I skipped the jalapeno but added a cup or so of shredded chicken.  Also, I think the next time I make this I might use les mayo and more avocado.  Or just less mayo period.

Next up is another green pasta dish.  I was first introduced to Garlic Scape by Serena at Big Apple Nosh.  I was definitely interested in her pesto and would look for garlic scapes at my local produce stand but never saw them.  Our friend Cliff asked us to join him at the Columbia City Farmer Market one Wednesday where I found someone selling garlic scapes.  I bought a bunch and decided to use Serena’s recipe for pesto.  It was also really good and actually very versatile.  The first night we used it on pasta, a few nights later we used as the base on pizza and my sister finished up the last of the pesto as a condiment on a sandwich.  Next time I make this it’s going on a sandwich with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes from my garden.  Maybe I’ll even grill or press the sandwich. 

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients

• 8 garlic scapes
• 1/3 c. walnuts (or nut of your choice)
• 1 c. olive oil
• 2/3 c. parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Combine scapes, nuts and parmesan cheese in food processor; processing to desired consistency
2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil and continue pureeing until well blended
3. Serve with cooked pasta of your choice or on hearty bread.

Note: I used pine nuts because that what we had on hand.

Lastly, I’ve got another green dish but this time it doesn’t involve pasta – just some of my “harvest.”  A few weeks ago we cooked up my first harvest of patty pan squash.  Using the mint from our plant (Amanda, this one is for you), we made a delicious side of herbed butter and squash.  It was a perfect compliment to dinner and I would happily make it again.  If you wanted to serve on pasta, I bet it would be good.  The recipe is from Epicurious but I altered it a bit.

Baby Zucchini and Patty Pan Squash Sautéed in Herb Butter

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups (about 1 pound) baby zucchini, stems removed and cut in half lengthwise
• 2 cups (about 3/4 pound) small yellow patty pan squash, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup (about 16 leaves) fresh basil, torn and loosely packed
• 1/2 cup (about 32 leaves) fresh mint, loosely packed

Instructions

In 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, melt butter. Add zucchini and patty pans and sauté, stirring occasionally, until tender, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer to large serving dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add basil and mint, and toss to combine.

Notes: I skipped the Zucchini and used switched around the measurement for mint and basil. 

All three recipes were really easy to make and took less than 15 minutes to prepare.  They were all a bit hit and utilized summer vegetables and herbs.  I will definitely be making them all again.  What are your favorite summer recipes? 

August Brain Drain

It’s seems like FOREVER since we posted anything here. The last few months have been crazy. Micah starts school (just meetings) today. I don’t even know where summer went. It’s all a blur. I had another post planned for today but I think it’s a Brain Drain kind of day.

House Guests

This has been the month of house guests. We’ve had some friends stay for a little under a week and currently my sister, her husband and their dog is staying with us. In both cases, the house guests were from the area (just needed a place to crash) which isn’t really what you’d expect of a house guest. It’s weird having house guests who have jobs to go to and lives to live here. It’s nice in the sense that you don’t have to worry about them being bored during the day but weird in the sense that it’s hard to figure out what they should and should not be doing. For short term (less than a week) guests, I’d make sure there was breakfast in the house (self serve except on weekends) and probably cook dinner for them if they didn’t already have plans. I wouldn’t expect them to clean apart from putting their dishes in the sink and keeping the place tidy (putting stuff away after they use it). But when you have family stay for a month, should you expect them to clean or cook or contribute to groceries? I’m not sure. My sister has made a few meals, my brother-in-law vacuumed the stairs and main floor yesterday, and they have both contributed to groceries a couple times. We never asked, but always accepted the help. We’ve both been asking each other what we should expect from long-term guests. Nothing? Something? And what do they expect? That we provide food? That we provide nothing but a place to stay? It’s weird.

Cousins

So not only do we currently have my sister and her husband staying with us but we also have their dog, Giacoma, staying with us too. My sister says Giacoma is an Italian Fox Dog but secretly we all know she’s some sort of Chihuahua mix. Having a second dog in the house is great – most of the time. Izzy has someone to play with and we’ve been able to leave in the house uncrated while were gone. That’s been nice. That said, the amount of fur flying around our house is nuts. Giacoma sheds twice as much as Izzy. Thank goodness she’s a short-haired dog. Vacuuming is very discouraging. It take me 20 minutes to vacuum the main floor and about 2 minutes of the “cousins” playing for it be covered in fur again. I don’t know how people have multiple dogs with thick coats. The cleaning would drive me crazy.

Travel/Work Stress

A day before I left for vacation I was told that I would have to travel to Zambia less than a week after I got back. Normally that isn’t a huge deal except earlier in the week I was told I didn’t have to travel until September and had already begun planning out my August at home. On top of that, my Zambia visa was expired and I needed to get a new one (and a plane ticket) while we were traveling. I managed to get the visa and plane ticket done plus sorted out a mini trip on the way back in Paris to visit Kate. I was excited. On my first day back in the office, I found out that I may or may not be traveling in 5 days. I had no idea whether or not I’d be traveling until 48 hours before I was scheduled to go. I was a mess. They postponed the trip until next week which is nice because it gives me another week of summer in Seattle but it is a little lame because now Kate and I won’t be able to rendezvous in Paris together. I will have almost an entire month to annoy Anne and her family in Lusaka.

Katie

Speaking of Kate, I just want to throw out a quick congratulations to her. She got engaged (finally) over the weekend. We’re so excited for her.

Toms

Not Tom, like a person but Toms like the shoe. Micah calls them the ninja shoe. I wondered about them but not enough to buy a pair. A friend bought a pair online, decided she didn’t like them and gave them to me. So far? Toms are the bomb. I feel like I’m not wearing shoes at all. They are very comfy though the soles don’t have a ton of traction. I also really like how they look on my feet. I didn’t think I would. The questions are whether or not they will still be comfortable after 24 hours of flying and how long will they last. I can’t say I feel they are built to last but we will see.

Harvesting

Micah, my sister and my brother-in-law all make fun of me because occasionally I’ll grab a bowl and head for the door. They ask me where I’m going and I’ll say, ‘to harvest.’ We haven’t have the warmest summer but garden is still doing pretty good. So far I’ve harvested a handful of Arugula (Rocket), a few bowls of lettuce, a cup of cress, 2 dozen French breakfast radishes, a dozen or so patty pan squash and 1 beet. I’ve also been using as much mint and basil as possible. We definitely have a couple more beets coming in and probably about a dozen or so more little squashes. Our tomato plants are falling over with fruit that I hope will be ready after I get back. There are a couple of really beautiful romas coming in. We also have a few small strawberries I should pick before I go and huge blackberry bush that I want to pick clean before Micah pulls them (again). I didn’t know people actually planted blackberry bushes. They grow wild here and are a complete menace until July/August when you can smell ripe blackberries when you are walking around. We’ve started planting our fall and winter crops that include pumpkins, carrots, more beets and a few leafy vegetables.

House Projects

We had grand plans for making a dent on our house projects this summer but of course that didn’t really pan out. Micah did manage to paint one of the decks and I got a couple organizing projects checked of my list. I’m determined to get a few projects done before I leave next week and Micah starts teaching. Then again, I’m also determined to enjoy the Seattle summer before I go. We’ll see what happens.

Posting

Regular posts will be coming soon.  I’ll have lots of time in the evenings while I’m in Zambia to catch up on the list of posts I have had planned for months.

A Quick Trip North

Micah and I have been out and about a lot the last three weeks.  A couple weeks ago, we spent a long weekend (4 days) to celebrate our anniversary.  We headed up to Whistler via Vancouver for some hiking, aimless wandering and eating.  I actually can’t remember why we chose Whistler but we’re glad we did.

On the drive up, we decided to stop in Richmond, British Columbia (just south of Vancouver) for some Ramen.  I was cruising a few Vancouver food blogs and decided we had to have Ramen.  For some reason you can’t get good Ramen in Seattle.  It just hasn’t caught on here.  We originally wanted to stop at a place called G-Men Ramen but it was closed.  We wandered around and found a place called Yuu Japanese Tapas.  We’re weren’t sure about it until we noticed the place was completely packed with locals.  Always a good sign.

I had the Spicy Miso with Pork and Micah had a the Pork Katsu Ramen.  Both SO good and well worth the stop.

We got to Whistler Saturday evening and were a little surprised by the crowd.  There was some sort of BMX event and the place was packed.  We wandered around a bit, enjoyed some ice cream and then retired to our room to people watch from our balcony.

On the advice of our friend Karen, we booked an ATV tour for Sunday morning.  It wasn’t a tour we would have picked on our own so we’re glad Karen suggested it.  It was SO fun and a great way of seeing the area.  We even lucked out and booked the tour for half price via a Groupon deal.

The view from behind Micah.  Look at those mountains.

Our group was fairly small and consisted of just one family from Brazil.  We spent the rest of the day hiking around a couple of small lakes and enjoying the warm weather.  For lunch we enjoyed a Canadian treasure, Poutine.  What’s Poutine?  It’s french fries with cheese curds covered in gravy.  Seriously.  Check out the picture.  It was good.  Weird but good.

On Monday we headed up to the one of the Olympic venues for a wander and on the way ran into this guy:

He was just hanging out on the side of the road eating a little grass.  We watched him for a while and then left him to his lunch.  I feel like we’ve been pretty lucky with the wildlife our last few trips.  We also saw an Eagle Tuesday afternoon on the Lummi Reservation.

We left Whistler late morning and headed to Lummi Island outside of Bellingham, Washington.  On the way down we stopped for Chinese in Vancouver and stumbled upon a great little place (which was packed) that served made to order dumpling.  They were delicious.

Look, she’s making them while we wait:

The highlight of our trip was supposed to be our stay on Lummi Island at the Willow’s Inn.  The New York Times goes on and on about the chef there and how eating there is worth a plane ride.  Our verdict? It was good.  Worth the drive but not a plane ticket. 

Before I go on, I want to say that we weren’t there on a night when they do a full tasting menu.  I bet that’s to die for.  We were there for Spotted Prawns night.  Our meal package included a salad, a pizza, spotted Prawns and the best margarita EVER for each of us.  I thought my salad was good but Micah’s was just OK.  Same for the pizza.  Mine seriously lacked flavor but his was good.  Nothing to write home about.  The prawns?  AMAZING.  Seriously the best single thing I eaten in a while which is saying something considering all my raving about the Corson Building.

These were so good that Micah and I did a little head slurping.  I always said I wouldn’t eat the contents of shrimp heads but these little guys were so good that I had to.  Really.  And that butter, it tasted like unsweetened caramel.  It was amazing.  I mean look how crazy I look because of these shrimp.

Micah looks less crazy and more concentrated.

The view from our table wasn’t bad either.

So, the Willow’s Inn is completely worth the drive for those shrimp.  The Inn itself was OK.  Everyone was really nice but the place is old and the plumbing is not great.  There was a toilet overflow incident the morning we left which kind of tainted the stay.  We had to pack up and leave sooner than we’d have liked.

The weekend was the perfect getaway and a great way to celebrate two great years of marriage.  We loved Whistler in the summer so much that we’re thinking of renting a house up there for a week next summer.