How We Met
I’m a huge fan of good coffee. So its not a surprise that when a new coffee shop opened up by my house in Solana Beach, I was there. After visiting a couple of times, I noticed a barista I hadn’t seen before working the espresso machine. After ordering my drink, I walked over and she looked at me and said “You’re from Oregon, aren’t you?” I was a little shocked that she had pinpointed that as the first thing about me, so my hesitant response was “yeah, how did you know?” Turns out she took a wild guess based on the flannel, denim and boots I was wearing. That conversation turned into us finding out our shared affinity for breakfast and appropriately, we had our first date over Captain Crunch french toast.
how they asked
I planned a trip for us to visit our families up in Portland for a beautiful fall weekend. The second day, we had brunch with our parents (did I mention we love breakfast?) and decided to head into the Columbia River Gorge, despite the pouring rain that had rolled in for the first time in a while. Thankfully all of the people (My parents, my brother, her sister and husband, and my cousin) I had rounded up to be a part of the proposal were willing to get soaking wet to help make it a special day.
Jeanette and I had a bit of rough morning, as she felt I was being distant and unavailable. Little did she know I was just nervous and trying to coordinate everything! After spending some time at the Bonneville Dam fish hatchery, we headed to hike to Wahclella falls. The fall colors were spectacular and the rain softened everything around us. By the time we reached the falls, we were all drenched!
Jeanette and I, as we normally do, quickly made our way to an area as close to the falls as possible. My cousin was taking photos and I asked him to take a few of the two of us. This was everybody’s cue that I would be proposing. I had the ring in a pocket inside my raincoat, but between my cold hands and the nerves, I couldn’t get it open without taking the jacket off. When I got back to Jeanette, I faced her towards me and she immediately saw it in my eyes. Before I could even say anything, she started asking me what I was doing and if this was real. After sharing with her how much I loved her and wanted to spend my life with her, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She was so ecstatic, she forgot to say yes! I had to ask her again and thats when she said “Of course! YES!!!” All of the people with us started cheering. Then, from behind some rocks a little ways away emerged our friend that had flown from San Diego to surprise her! She couldn’t believe it. After spending some time enjoying the moment with our friends and family, we hiked back to the car and headed home to a huge gathering of family and friends.
