Although we both graduated from Linden High School and lived in Linden, we had to meet 4,200 miles away in Alaska! July of 2021 my mom and I planned an East Coast road trip to celebrate my graduating from Oakland University. Weeks before the trip, I found super cheap flights to Alaska and thought the opportunity was too good to pass up. I had my mom change all of our plans and started booking places to stay and things to do in the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. While asking people the ‘must do’s’ of Alaska, Lisa, my mom, had a classmate express they were going to be in Alaska a couple days we were going to be there. He invited us to go fishing with him and his group (men that do the salmon run every year). So, of course we took up the opportunity because not many people can say they caught their own salmon in Alaska! The day comes (July 29th) where we are scheduled to catch some fish. We rented waders and headed to the meeting spot. There were hundreds of people on the banks of the river standing and snagging fish! It was quite overwhelming and intimidating! Casey was out on the river early in the morning catching his limit so he actually went back to their cabin shortly after we arrived and Corey and Eric helped my mom and I get the technique down. My mom and I did succeed and caught 3 fish each!!! It was amazing! Afterwards, the guys had invited us back to their cabin to cook the fish and eat dinner… My mom and I talked about heading to these guys’ cabin, in the middle of Alaska, down some deep dirt roads with no service and how it was sketchy… BUT we went anyways! At the cabin, Eric filleted our fish and sealed them up so we could take them home on the plane. The guys had cooked the salmon they caught during the day for dinner and it was delicious! We found out Casey was from Michigan and turned out he lived 10 minutes away from us and offered to fly our fish home with all of his. Once he learned we were so close he asked for my number “so he could bring our fish to us”. Flash forward to both of us being home from Alaska. My mom had told Casey that we would take him out to dinner as a thank you for flying our fish home. He brought our fish over but did not have time for dinner. A week later Casey texted me asking if I was around. I told him we weren’t available because my mom was going to be gone (I thought he wanted to cash in that free dinner). He texted back that he wasn’t interested in hanging out with my mom, just wanted to know if I was available… and the story of us being together began!!!