We're eloping!

After living in Seattle for 10 months, Lisa finally took me to visit the love of my life, Mt. Rainier. We hiked to Fremont Lookout, a fire lookout with unobstructed views of Mt. Rainier and immediately fell in love. We decided right then it was a hike we had to do again, but at sunset. Weeks later, Lisa asked to take our sunset hike over Labor Day Weekend- that Sunday in particular. It seemed odd to me that we were planning a hike so far in advance (we are typically last minute planners), but she rationalized it because it was the only consecutive two days off we had together that didn't fall on a Saturday. Fair Enough. Labor Day Weekend is also my birthday weekend, and on the morning of September 2nd (my birthday), Lisa surprised me with a new Sony camera to take on our hikes! Ah, this must be why we wanted the sunset hike on this day, it makes sense now. After the most perfect few days camping near Rialto Beach on the Olympic Peninsula and testing out my new camera, the sunset hike was on the horizon. Day of, Lisa is up and moving. Packing backpacks, worrying about crowds, making me check the Mt. Rainier NPS Twitter to see how long it was taking to enter the park. "We have to be there by 4 pm!"... Lisa, the sunset is at 7:30, the hike takes an hour, we will be FINE. After a 2 hour drive full of panic, we made it inside and found a parking spot! It's 4 pm, all is well in the world, let's do this thing! WRONG. "I need a snack". Excuse me, WHAT? We just spent 2 hours driving to the park, an additional 30 minutes waiting to get into the gate, and NOW you need to eat?! "My blood sugar is low..." is what I hear as Lisa takes a bite out of a stale peanut butter sandwich that had been in the back of the fridge for 2 weeks. Gross. Okay, NOW we hike! I take off running, speeding past the tourists and families with young kids to make it to the top. Lisa, the typical mile a minute hiker wants me to slow down? This keeps getting weirder... something is up.

How in the world is the girl that sets her own sprinter pace and will not slow down for anybody complaining that I am moving too fast today? I look around, at this point there is only one guy a bit behind us. I guess it couldn't hurt to take our time today, we got here insanely early after all. An hour or so later, we reach the top! Reunited with my mountain, brand new camera in tow, I'm ready to see how she looks through a higher quality lens. Other people were dispersed around the fire lookout area, but for a holiday weekend the crowd was pretty thin. We wait a few moments to have the lookout to ourselves and set up camp. We take turns snapping a few pictures of each other and WOW is this camera fancy. I face Mt. Rainier as Lisa takes a few pictures from behind. "Here, see if you like these". I peek through the viewfinder to see the pictures without a glare from the sun. They're perfect! I look up. Wait, what?! Lisa is in front of me, on one knee, holding the most beautiful diamond ring I've ever seen. I immediately burst into tears, and in my initial moment of panic, snap a goofy picture of the ring and her feet. Obviously, I say yes, and in the background I can hear the groups of fellow hikers cheering. Okay Lisa, you did good. "By the way, there's a photographer over there. He's going to do a photoshoot for us." I look over and there is the man who was behind us with photography gear, waving. As if I couldn't possibly be more overwhelmed, she drops another bombshell. Lisa pulls two full outfits, shoes, and two tiny bottles of champagne out of her hiking backpack. At this point, I am amazed. She thought of EVERYTHING. I run behind a rock to change and take a second to soak it all in. The smoke from the wildfires has cleared out, the sun is starting to set behind my favorite mountain. How did I get this lucky? I have a fiancée. I'm going to get MARRIED. But first, we have a photoshoot to do.

So, you meet a girl, you fall in love, you propose, you get married; easy, right? Well, I met a girl, she met a mountain and fell in love. I was immediately inspired to plan the most unforgettable proposal ever for her. First things first, buy the ring, done. It'll be here in a 4 weeks. Cool. Gives me a week of wiggle room before the big day. BAM, hurricane in Texas, ring may not arrive until we are gone camping for Heather's birthday. Quickly I phone my only two resources in Seattle and create back-up plans. STRESS. 8/28/20, I receive a phone call that the ring (by some miracle) has come in and I can pick it up. Mind you, I am at work. I am in the OR with a patient, theoretically trapped in my little hole, I cannot just leave them by themselves with a surgeon and anesthesiologist (maybe I could but it would be absolutely questionable). So, I make a phone call, I beg to sacrifice my lunch, my afternoon break, anything to run down the street to secure the package because, thanks to COVID, the jeweler had VERY limited hours of operation. Luckily work obliged, I secured the package. I spent the rest of the day with a jewelry box in my pocket, hoping it didn't fall out into some strange bodily fluids (it did not). I get it home and hide it with the cleaning supplies, if you know Heather, you know this was the perfect hiding spot. Meanwhile, I am scheduling a surprise photographer to hike with us, catch the proposal and do an engagement shoot immediately following. All being done via email due to COVID. I only know this person's face through photos and vice versa Fast forward, I got Heather a fancy camera for her birthday. Long story short, this was a consolation prize because I'm not the best liar and had to account for my whereabouts on the day I went ring shopping. Perfect excuse to get her to go on a sunset hike and look half cute doing it (harder than it sounds because you don't TRY to look cute hiking unless you're an influencer, like, it is NOT a thing).

If you’re still reading at this point, I’m impressed and thankful. I’d like to think it’s worth it. The story does have a happy ending after all. What’s a good proposal without a few challenges, right? I’ve convinced Heather to look cute for our hike. I have the ring. I’m secretly texting our photographer. We’ve planned the rendezvous place and time. Now just to pick out the perfect outfit for her and pack it in the hiking backpack without her noticing. Not hard to do at all in a small apartment. Oh, and let’s hope that she doesn’t want to add anything to the backpack because I’ll be totally busted. Did I mention that I planned this hike on Labor Day weekend? Visiting a National Park during a pandemic is probably not the best idea if you want to find a stranger in a crowd with no cell phone service. If you let Heather tell it, I was a little on edge (I mean who wouldn’t be, there were SO many things that could go wrong). I was trying not to be obvious, but clearly very concerned about arriving to the park by a certain hour. Maybe I was a LITTLE anxious. Finally, we arrive at the parking lot of Sunrise at Mt. Rainier! All is well, except no sign of the photographer. Now, after rushing all day to get here on time, I must stall. First stop, the bathroom. Done. Back to the car to get our gear, still no sign of him. The panic sets in a little more. Ugh, how can I stall even more?! Ahh, I must be hungry, cannot possibly hike on an empty stomach! So, I carefully dig in my backpack and grab a half-eaten, petrified, peanut butter sandwich out and go to town. Each bite is so dry and especially awful because I have a million butterflies in my stomach, but I choke it down as I continue to survey the parking lot for this stranger who I only know through a handful of photographs. Finally, I spot him. We make eye contact, he gives a slight nod, and I know I can put this forsaken sandwich down and begin the trek.

This is really happening! The stars have aligned, I’m going to get to propose to the woman of my dreams in the most perfect way possible. I cannot believe it. My heart and mind are going a mile a minute. I am trying to keep my cool, but inside I am a total mess. Good news though, Heather takes off in a dead sprint up this mountain. Don’t have any more time to focus on my nerves because I am too busy DYING with a heavy pack full of clothes, champagne, summit beers, and water. Our poor photographer is also struggling to keep up, he’s even got a knee brace on (don’t worry, it was a minor injury from playing soccer with his kids). I eventually speak up about the pace and try to buy us some time by getting her to stop and take photos of things along the way. A little under 3 miles later, we’ve made it to the lookout. Luckily, it’s not too crowded yet. I am SO nervous. How am I going to get this ring out of the backpack without her noticing? How will I make sure the photographer gets a good photo? When is the perfect moment? How do I surprise her when it’s just the two of us? Honestly, why did I do this to myself?! LOL. Oh yeah, because she is absolutely amazing and deserves the world and the perfect proposal. Time to get it together. I let her take a few pictures with the camera; buying myself some time to get the ring out of the backpack while she is distracted. I decide that I can snap a few pictures of her and then take away her vision by asking her if they were good or not. While she’s looking at the pictures, I get down on one knee and wait on her to look back up (secretly hoping no strong gust of wind blows the ring out of my hand). Finally, she looks up, snaps a damn picture, I think I said some words that I had planned, and she said yes!

Cheers were heard from the fellow hikers, and I was so relieved. Now I got to reveal to Heather that I had a secret photographer, and we were also going to get to do an engagement shoot with the true love of her life, Mt. Rainier. It was perfect. I am so lucky. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoy telling it and having lived it.