Cassie and Koen met in Geneva, Switzerland, while we were both working on our masters degrees. For our first date, we agreed to meet at Boreal Cafe in old town Geneva. We should have probably thought more about that because it was so packed when we arrived on that Saturday morning that we couldn't even find a place to sit! We ended up wandering through Geneva looking for other places to sit. Ultimately we settled on a Starbucks and talked for hours about our family, our love of travel and new places, and, of course, sailing. This was the first in what would be many coffees in our future! Since then we've shared lattes at all of the Boreals in Switzerland and at a growing list of cafes in New York. Here's to many more espressos ahead!

In July 2019, Cassie moved back to the United States and Koen remained in Switzerland for school. This was the beginning of a lot of transatlantic flights for both of us! Koen came to visit Cassie often in the U.S. while she was in law school, and Cassie flew to Switzerland to see Koen while he was finishing up his masters degree. In February 2020, right after Koen had just finished visiting Cassie, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Because of the travel bans, neither of us could now go visit the other. It was a weird period in time. We tried to go on "virtual dates" and watch movies together on Netflix, but the time difference and lagging internet made things hard. Finally, Switzerland introduced an exception to the travel ban that allowed Cassie to come visit Koen. In order to be able to get the visa, we had to prove our relationship status to the Swiss government, which involved sending social media posts about each other, making a written attestation of how we met, and showing ticket stubs that we had visited each other prior to the pandemic. Like we said, it was a weird period. But Cassie got her visa and was finally able to see Koen after a year-and-a-half apart! It was a joyful reunion in Geneva! We traveled around Switzerland and celebrated every moment together. After the travel ban was lifted in June 2021, we were able to visit each other much more frequently. Koen was able to come for Thanksgiving, and Cass was able to come for family weekends in the Netherlands. Finally, in February 2024, we were able to bring our long-distance chapter to an end. Koen moved to New Jersey with Cassie and we finally don't have to worry about long distance or time differences any more!

In the summer of 2023, we chartered a sailboat to explore the Cyclades with our friends and family. Over the two weeks that we sailed, we visited ancient temple ruins, white sand beaches, an olive oil press, and many windmills. Not everything was idyllic, the holds of our boat flooded twice and we had run so desperately low on clean clothes that we ended up doing laundry by hand with a bucket and some soap, but it was still so worth it! While we were visiting the island of Milos, Koen asked Cassie if she would like to take some pretty sunset pictures at a scenic overlook he had found. Cassie agreed and they climbed into the car with Anneloes, Koen's sister and expert photographer, and two of Cassie's friends, Ianka and Simone. When we arrived, we climbed up gravel and rock for 30 minutes to get to the overlook. Cassie was in heels and wasn't terribly pleased about this. The view, once we finally got there, was so worth it though! We were up on the highest point of the island, next to a whitewashed, blue-domed Cycladic church, and when we looked down, we could see sailboats passing by. As we were taking sunset pictures in this beautiful locale, Koen dropped down on one knee and proposed. To say that Cassie was surprised would be an understatement, but to say that she was overjoyed would also be an understatement. Cassie said yes and the happy couple went to celebrate at a winery. It was a moment and an adventure that we will always cherish!