How he did it... When we were in Carmel over the holidays, Jeff brought me to our favorite beach with the promise of mama and baby sea otters playing close to shore (according to his mom who was allegedly there at the time). A sucker for baby animals, I didn't think twice as we jumped in the car to stop by the beach on our way to dinner in Big Sur. While my eyes were locked on the coastline looking for the otters as we walked along the beach (calling out with excitement when I saw a particularly otter-like piece of floating seaweed), I didn't notice that the spot where we stopped was right in front of a bench we sat at on my first trip to Carmel, talking for hours about our potential future together. As I was still busy looking for the otters like an idiot, Jeff, standing behind me, admitted that there actually were never any otters, but... And as soon as he said 'but' I knew. I turned around to Jeff down on one knee asking if I wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.