How We Met
We met because of a couch I posted on a local buy & sell page. She wasn’t the first to contact about it, but she was the most polite. And she was beautiful.
The night we met; I actually did a double take when I first saw her. I could hardly believe This was the girl who came for the couch. We really hit it off, chatting for a while before I delivered the couch to her place.
We live in a small mountain-town, and bumped into each other a few days later. I felt bad charging her for the couch, and asked if I could take her out for dinner to make up for it? -She said No, as she was still getting over a bad breakup. But she agreed to come for a hike the next day (she liked my dog).
I had to ask her out three times! Each time was a “no”. We could do fun things together, but it wouldn’t be a “date”. So; we went on hikes, met for hot chocolates, had snowball fights, plates of fries at the brewery. None of which were “real dates” apparently. A month later, we were invited to a Christmas party as a couple, and spent our first night together. That was almost 5 years ago, and we couldn’t be happier today.
how they asked
As a pilot, sometimes we rent small planes to go on adventures. On the coast of Washington, there’s a special place called Copalis Beach that becomes an airstrip at low tide. I had an idea…
We flew into the “regular” (paved) airport in the nearby town of Ocean Shores, and spent the night in a cute seaside motel. Waking early, I went to “get the plane ready”, and snuck off to the beach. Even with the rake I had hidden in the plane, the message took longer than expected to write in the hard packed sand. (I tested it with a stick the night before, as we walked on the beach at sunset.) Nervously driving the coast-road back to the motel, I tried not to speed. -The owners had lent me their car that morning when I told them about my secret plan. Made it back (with tea/breakfast), and the countdown was on.
We took off into a clear, crisp morning and climbed out above the town. She had no idea what was about to happen. Nearing the Copalis beach airstrip, I asked her to look outside and check the wind direction. -Just ahead, I had written, “MARRY ME NAYIA?” 10 feet high in the sand. As we got closer, I pulled out the ring, and the message passed off to the right, about 200 feet below. Then I closed the box (!!) -because I wanted to get down on one knee & do things “properly”. All my dreams come true when she said ‘Yes’ as we circled back around to land. I parked the plane next to the message on the beach, took her hand, and got down on one knee in the sand. “A million times Yes!” she said as I knelt on that beach. I will never forget it.
We often have cameras rolling in the plane to record adventures, but I had a special purpose for the footage this time. Nayia is from England, and I wanted her family to be able to share a bit of our special day. I made a quick video to show what happened that morning.
