11th Marine Regiment is at a 1-day halt in the heat and dust. Reina decides to raise morale with a truckload of hot food. Ben decides coffee with the cute logistician serving out noodles is a better alternative to working. Three hours later she invites him to join five friends and coworkers to help move furniture into her new apartment. Love at first sight? What, no! Reina barely remembers seeing the new guy around camp who checked in last winter. No, after this they all just get lunch together as a group sometimes. And sometimes go dancing after work, or out to a drag show in San Diego. And yeah, there was that one time Ben showed up to help her watch a mutual friend's baby on a Friday night. And then when they got paired up for sword detail at the Marine Corps birthday ball in November. Coincidence? After practicing the routine together for weeks and getting to know each other, it just makes sense they'd hang out. And go pick each other up from the airport to explore San Diego whenever one was traveling. Every time. But no, seriously, guys. We're just friends. It wasn't until July 2019, after Reina drove Ben to the airport to head overseas for nine months while she went north to Monterey for her master's at Naval Postgraduate School. That's when they decided to start dating. Because why would it make sense to start dating when you're co-located? Not for this couple, it only made sense to start dating once they were approximately 7,826 miles away (if you decide to measure the distance headed east of Monterey, CA to Kuwait City). So began three years of long distance. Nine months in Kuwait became eleven as COVID hit. Reina and Ben became Alaska Airlines frequent flyers and extensively explored the stretch of Highway 101 between Monterey and San Diego for long weekends over the next year. In July 2021, they packed up Reina’s F150 to move to her new job in Virginia. Ben burned his remaining vacation time over his last year in the Marines (and switched to American Airlines frequent flyer miles). On March 19th 2022, while Reina was in San Diego on a work trip, Ben very much insisted that they break off from shopping for a muscle-release foam roller (Reina really needed a travel sized one) and go watch the sunset at this one really cool spot at Sunset Cliffs (it was cloudy). Reina’s string of frustrated and confused questions were answered when Ben got on one knee and popped THE question. She instantly cried and was surprised with a group of their friends and family cheering on the top of the hill (see below).