We flew to Seattle by way of Phoenix on US Air. The trip was uneventful, and we arrived in Seattle on a late, sunny afternoon. We had plenty of time to drive to Woodinville and check in before our 7:30 dinner reservation.

The Willows Lodge gave us a small pour of a local wine as soon as we checked in, and they had a plate of chocolate covered strawberries in the room when we arrived. Very nice! Service has been good already.

The Herb Garden Suite is quite charming; the room is sweet and has a lovely balcony with a table and chairs. We're on the second floor. There is a fireplace in the corner, and Philip turned it on so easily. I didn't watch to see where he found the switch, but I think it was just that easy.

Dinner at The Barking Frog was nice. The service started out a little slow; no one seemed to see us waiting at first. Finally, a brusque young man came by and said he'd be right back with us. We never saw him again. However, a really great waitress came by to greet us and take our orders, and the service after that was great. She was well-trained. If you go, ask for Kristen's table. When the kitchen was a little slow with the second course (we'd been there 45 minutes and had not seen the salad yet), she brought the wine bottle back and topped off our glasses apologizing for the delay.

Our meals were delicious. We started by sharing an appetizer of veal sweetbreads. I don't remember ever having sweetbreads before. They were fine, but I probably won't order them again. Then both of us ordered the warm crab salad. It was just great with avocado, grapefruit and some greens, but mostly just crab meat. For the main course I ordered scallops and Philip had the duck; both were delicious. Then for dessert we ordered several flavors of their homemade ice creams and sorbets. The lychee and vanilla were good, but the peanut butter was rather odd.