We spent our first day on a big, gritty slab of sandstone that juts out over Chuckanut Bay. We sat on the rock overlooking the ocean for what must have been five hours, without cushion or blanket or any kind of comforts save for two ham sandwiches and a bluetooth speaker. It was mid-Spring, just when past-dark becomes bearable and temperate again, so we let the sun sink into the surf and looked west together until all the active sailboats had taken in for the night. We've been family ever since.

It was a delicious & debauched early Spring night in Paris and we spent it running into a menagerie of strange stimuli---there was the cemetery Jim Morrison is buried in surrounded by a screaming Frenchman and huge, cawing ravens---there was an optimistic order at a restaurant a local girl told us (rather correctly) was "le plus authentique" that turned out to be fresh, uncleaned pig intenstine---and of course there was the Parisian Mariachi band playing on the subway among the moody commuters and us, wine-buzzed and completely amused, despite the annoyed glares of the locals who seemed to say, with their chalky stares, "How dare you enjoy this disruption?" We were in love with that city. Every little disquieting thing we encountered that night just brought our strides more in step. It was the culmination of the entire trip's essence---the first time either one of us had left North America, and we felt like we were finally breathing. Megan once got this piece of advice: "If you think you want to marry someone, take them to Europe. You'll know by the time you get back." Allen didn't wait for us to get back. That night, still laughing and hungry in our inability to eat literal tripe, Allen instructed Megan to close her eyes. He turned off all the lights in the hotel room and opened the windows that overlooked the city. Among the lights of Parisian homes and the home we had created in that hotel room, Allen asked Megan to be his home all over the world, and put his grandmother's ring on her finger.

Megan will graduate with her Bachelor of Arts in June. After our honeymoon, we'll be hunkering down in Blaine for a bit as we save money and work on the immigration process to have Megan gain residency in Canada. From there, Megan will attend graduate school in Vancouver or Toronto, hoping to gain footing in the world of Editing & Publishing, while Allen continues his work as an Automations Engineer. Eventually, we hope to establish a remotely-run business, purchase property in Nova Scotia, and hit the road permanently.