We met through Hinge in July of 2017. Este had a go-to first date plan: ice cream. That way, even if the date didn't go well, both people ended up with ice cream - solid logic. We met for the first time outside of Swensen's Ice Cream in Russian Hill on a Tuesday evening... and it wasn't exactly love at first sight :) Anneka had her doubts at first, mainly due to Este's choice of first date attire, which included a fitted white bomber jacket with black lightening bolts on it. Questionable choice, at best. Luckily for both of us, the conversation was great, the ice cream was delicious and the jacket was quickly ignored... though not forgotten. We walked down to a dive bar in North Beach and enjoyed a drink before going our separate ways. Este left for a work trip to Comic Con a few days later (which is the only way we ever remember when our anniversary is lol), so we spent a week texting and when he came back we had our first "real" date in Golden Gate Park at The Conservatory of Flowers with some Golden Boys pizza and a bottle of wine... and the rest is history, at they say!

We were sheltering in place in Este's studio in San Francisco, both working from home (often one of us from the closet) when we decided to start looking for a home together. The process was stressful, but exciting, and before we knew it we had found our wonderful home in Rockridge, sold Este's condo, and were preparing for our final trip to SF to move out the last of our things. The day was HOT. As in, we almost had meltdowns inside of Walgreens kind of hot. But we took it easy, sitting in Washington Sq Park and wandering around North Beach until it was time to hike up Union Street for our final SF activity: ice cream at Swensen's, where we had met for the first time. Now, Este had had a Plan A but... COVID. So he had been working on Plan B, both of which borrowed a trick from Andy Euser's playbook. Anneka's dad proposed to her mom in the same spot they had met. Este knew he wanted to propose at Swensen's, but wasn't 100% sure how to pull it off or how to get it on camera, so he called in backup: Andrew Clark. Andrew immediately pulled up the location on Google and in minutes had the perfect hiding spot to take pics from & provided Este with diagrams to ensure he hit his mark. We reached Swensen's after a steep and hot (did we mention that part?) hike, got our ice cream and went outside. After a few bites, Este started in by saying some really sweet things to Anneka, to which she responded, "Why are you being so nice?!" (he is ALWAYS nice, for the record). Este got down on one knee and proposed in front of a confused line of Swensen's patrons (which is fair, since Anneka, in shock, was yelling "No, no, no!") a few police officers, & (surprise!) Andrew, Ali (on her birthday!), and baby Katherine across the street. It was a wonderful day that marked not only the beginning of the next chapter of our lives together, but also a special close to our time in San Francisco, a city we both love dearly. We can't wait to share another magical day with you all on August 7th!