Cassandra was finishing her first summer working in Whitefish, Montana, while Dan was on a solo road trip after his first seasonal summer job in Stanley, Idaho. The opportunity to see glaciers and the national park was a priority to him and one of the best hikes in the park is the Grinnell Glacier Trail. However, the #1 rule in an area with grizzly bears is, "Never Hike Alone". Within the first mile on the trail, Cassandra and her friend CK spotted a moose and black bear. Dan, not far behind, was able to catch up and see his first black bear of the summer. As they all ventured up the path, Dan heard continuous laughter from the two girls, and it would not stop. They had just bought a cute, ceramic, and hairy tailed chipmunk with them on the trail for photos. However, this would be Dale's first and last trip. He had taken a dive at the lake which chipped his ear and soaked his fur, which Danny found on when he approached them and asked what was so funny. Knowing he had a close enough encounter with the wildlife, he asked if they could continue the journey to the glacier together and they said yes. The trio spent the rest of the day climbing the 1,600 ft 11 mile roundtrip trail together. When they got to the glacier, Dan picked up an ice chunk and let the water drip into his mouth. Cassandra took it a step farther and jumped into the glacial lake, swimming out to an iceberg to sit on. The water was obviously freezing, so she didn't stay in long. Glacial silt covers the lake floor, so even though it wasn't deep at the edge, she couldn't get out by herself easily because it was so slippery. Dan ran over and helped pull her out of the icy waters, so you could say technically he saved her life that day :) After we returned to the car they had lunch and parted ways. Dan was in Whitefish for a couple days following and Cassandra offered him the couch at her house to crash on instead of him sleeping in his car. They both had significant others at the time, and were just friends at this time. After he left town, Dan, CK, and Cassandra stayed in a text group to keep in touch and occasionally check in.

During summer of 2020, Cassandra and Dan were able to spend bonus time in their beloved Flathead Valley, but most importantly, with their beloved friends. Knowing the inevitable, Dan took this as an opportunity to have as many of Cassandra's MontanaFam together on a hike and pop the question. Since they were unable to enter into Glacier National Park, a view into the park and of the many surrounding lakes would be a great sendoff to the valley. The 8 person crew meandered through lush forests, meadows of wildflowers, and alpine lakes, all but one of them knowing of the surprise that awaited at the top. As they ascended, the abundance of wildflowers amazed us all. Dan meticulously picked a bouquet of flowers to use for the proposal and passed it along for Holly to hide at the top. After taking in the views from above, Dan began his search for the hidden bouquet along the ridge. Wanting to be with him, she followed down the ridge. Dan was trying to keep it cool, not wanting to ruin the surprise, and Cassandra took him by surprise. She asked if the flowers were for her, and the rest of the conversation was kind of a blur. Our friends documented the whole thing, but we remember as Dan was getting down on one knee she pushed him in surprise as he was standing on a rocky ledge. He wouldn't have died, just gotten some scrapes if he fell ha!. He asked her to be his wildflower, and after about 3 solid minutes of her asking "Is this a joke?!" "Are you serious?" She finally realized what was going on and said yes! More to her surprise, Dan had cups and bottles of champagne in his backpack so we could all toast together on the top of the mountain to friendship and our future.

About 2 years after they first met, Dan and Cassandra started communicating more via facebook. They were both seasonal travelers at this point, which means come October, it's usually time to leave the country. Cassandra was on hold in Montana as she was recovering from foot surgery, while Dan was off to Iceland to meet up with some friends and family. They had been chatting for a couple months, getting closer, but still "just friends" helping each other through some tough moments with words of encouragement. November came and Cassandra was off to the Canary Islands to visit her Bulgarian friend Vesi. Dan was also in Spain, so they decided to meet up. He met her in Barcelona at the bus stop, and right after they said Hello she immediately freaked out that she left her passport on the bus. She didn't, thankfully, but little did Dan know he was in for a lifetime of this nonsense. Celebrating Thanksgiving in a middle eastern restaurant eating subpar flat steak, they stayed a couple more days in the city exploring. They almost missed their flight to Gran Canaria, again, setting a familiar life trend, but they made it to Vesi. A couple days at the beach and then it was time to explore the islands. After only 5 days together, Cassandra told Danny at their last night before their adventure, in a twinkle lit courtyard of their hostel, that she was in love with him. Followed immediately by telling him not to respond at all. He was in the middle of a tough breakup and she didn't want to complicate things or make him think of a response, but she had to tell him before they left the next day in the rental car, and also giving him a last chance to back out and go seperate ways. He stayed quiet while they sat side by side holding hands on a porch swing. After a while they got up for bed, and adding to the traveler grafitti on the way inside, Cassandra wrote "Que Sera, Sera...Whatever will be, will be" on the wall. They kissed goodnight and seperated to their dorm beds. They rented a small van, took the seats out (leaving them in the hostel office) bought 2 lounge chair cushions from the store to sleep on, and made a home out of it. For the next 2 weeks they lived out of the van, in 80+degree weather, showering in the sea, sharing €1.50 bottles of wine, eating whatever food they could from the grocery store before it would spoil in the heat. They took ferries to 4 different islands, seeing the sunset on the west side of an island each night and driving east to a a random cliff or beach area to wake to the sunrise the next morning. It was the night before Dan was set to fly home for Christmas in Delaware with his family, while Cassandra was going to go back to winging it as she usually had. When dinner was finished, Danny shyly asked her to come home and meet his family and stay for Christmas. She crazily agreed to leave tropical paradise and head to Delaware in the middle of winter. She was flying standby at the time under her friend Megan's account, and intended to go to her Mother's for Christmas after a couple days in Delaware. Plot twist- standby on the holidays is impossible (Danny said "I knew that" as i read this outloud to him! ha!). So Cassandra spent 2 weeks in Delaware with the Szczecinski Family, attending several different family parties and unexpectedly meeting most of his very large family, and the rest....is history! <3