Sep | 20 | 2025

We met doing one of the things we love most – enjoying the beauty of the Bay Area on bike. In Spring 2019, Cesiel joined a training ride Gerard was leading for AIDS Lifecycle. Gerard flirted by challenging Cesiel to a race up Camino Alto—Cesiel won, of course. That ride kicked off a sweet cycling friendship, with Cesiel showing up to nearly every training ride. In September, we took our first overnight bike trip—just friends at the time, but looking back, we’ll call that our first date. Life got busy with yoga teacher training and work, but by November, things had shifted. Gerard began teaching yoga, and Cesiel showed up in the front row of every class. After a Big Wild concert, we made things unofficially official. Through COVID lockdowns, our bond grew stronger with sunrise rides, outdoor workouts, and Bachelorette watch parties at Capp St. We also discovered a shared love for backpacking. Cesiel took Gerard on his first backpacking trip to Bear Lake in Emigrant Wilderness, where we hiked in four miles, swam in the lake, ate Taco Bell for dinner, and fell asleep under a sea of stars. Since that first trip, we’ve explored the backcountry of Yosemite, the Lost Coast, Sequoia, and Point Reyes. We moved in together on Sharon Street, started ‘pizza nights,’ and rescued our first child, Willem. In August 2023, Gerard proposed to Cesiel under the stars at Bear Lake—Taco Bell and all—recreating that very first backpacking trip where our love story began. And in February 2024, Cesiel returned the question at Fort Funston Beach, Gerard’s favorite place in the city.