Join us in the mountains!

It all started in the same, tired old way that many of history’s greatest love stories start. You know the story: Wednesday night. Girl (Olivia) goes with boy to a party. But boy is gay. Later in the evening, boy invites best friend (Chris) to crash party. Chris dutifully puts down his books to answer the call of the wild (a frat party). Being full of testosterone and booze (as any self-respecting college kid should be), he throws a half-joking and VERY cheesy pickup line in the direction of a small, pretty blonde girl he’s seen but never met before. Truly expecting nothing in return, Chris turns back to the shots that his friends have so generously lined up before him. However he is pleasantly surprised when, from the mouth of the pretty blonde girl he hears a cheesy, half-joking reply in return. Even through the drunken haze, two dots connect in Chris’s brain. The first dot is what was apparent from the second he walked in the room – this girl is pretty. The second dot, not apparent until his probing joke elicited a reply – this girl is fun. The rest, as they say, is history. Chris pursued Olivia with such outright interest that she actually thought he was joking. Eventually, after many driving lessons learning stick and late nights getting froyo, she realized (probably with dread) that he was in fact very serious, and through some combination of foolishness and resignation, she agreed to be his girlfriend.

In the fall of 2018 Chris and Olivia planned a trip to Mammoth Lakes. Little did Olivia know, the beautiful formations of the Eastern Sierras weren’t going to be the only ‘rocks’ on the scene. For months, Chris hadn’t known where or when he’d give her this ring, but he knew how – on a trip into the mountains. The kind of trip that had come to characterize a meaningful part of their relationship. Nestled at the foot of Temple Crag is where Olivia got suspicious. Chris began setting up for pictures with more equipment than usual… His phone, his camera, the car dash cam… “Sometimes, Chris does strange things,” is probably how she reasoned it away. “Oh wait! I have a surprise!” Overlooking Temple Crag, he played one of their favorite songs. “To the Ends of the Earth” by Lord Huron is about a man asking a woman if she’ll follow him to the ends of the earth, only to find at the end “I guess I’m goin’ alone.” But here was the surprise – the song now said “Guess I’m _not_ goin’ alone.” Once the final notes played, Chris started babbling… reviewing their adventures together through good times and bad and how they always came out better than they were. Eventually he shut up for a second and concluded with this: “I get carried away sometimes with long-winded metacognition. But it all boils down to one statement, which is 'I love you.' …It also boils down to a question, which is - Olivia, will you marry me?” Her response: “Oh my god! …YES!”