In May 2020, during the height of COVID, we both decided it would be a wonderful idea to meet a complete stranger in the middle of the woods (after a month of FaceTime calls, of course). Thank goodness neither of us turned out to be a serial killer; however, our hike and picnic at the Birdsboro Reservoir turned out to be just the beginning of our love story.
The day we "officially" became a couple, we went mini-golfing at Village Greens. We were both very bad, especially Rachel (par was 74, and Rachel shot 115). After the longest game of mini-golf ever ended, we did not want the date to end but had absolutely no idea where to go next. We decided to go to the Strasburg Creamery for ice cream, which led to the birth of our competitive nature--the loser buys ice cream. Since Vinny is better than Rachel at mini-golf and loves his free ice cream, mini-golfing quickly became one of our staple date nights! If you would like to keep up with our competitiveness and see how amazing Rachel is at mini-golf, here are our current standings: Rachel: 5 - 16 - 2 Vinny: 16 - 5 - 2
The day after Rachel finished her last fieldwork placement and "officially" graduated grad school, we went on a picnic at the top of our favorite hiking spot. Yes, you guessed it, the Birdsboro Reservoir. Rachel knew something was fishy when Vinny wore nice clothes to go on a hike in 90-degree weather and was adamant about not letting Rachel put his "rolled up t-shirt" in her backpack. Once we got to the reservoir, Vinny asked Rachel to find some rocks to skip across the water. Of course, Rachel walked in the wrong direction; however, when she turned around, Vinny was down on one knee. Rachel shouted, "REALLY?" a couple of times and then finally, "YES!" We are so excited to celebrate with all the people we love and are counting down the days until I DO!