This past weekend, the hubs and I celebrated our three year engagement anniversary. While I didn’t have a blog back in those days, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane with you guys (throwback Monday?) and share the story about how we got engaged.
It all started with begging. Not for an engagement, but for a vacation. After 4 and a half years of college (oh the joys of credits not transferring), I was ready for a break. Considering I graduated on a Saturday and started my full-time job on Monday, there wasn’t much room to take a breather.
Since Shawn’s aunt, who lives in San Diego, had graciously extended an open invitation to us, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to escape the frigid DC temps and visit his side of the family.
Fast forward past the excitement, packing, flying, arriving, eating on La Jolla beach, visiting the San Diego Zoo and finding the best Mexican restaurant in town…the day came to visit Catalina Island. I had gone as a child and loved everything about it - I wanted to share that with my very best friend.
When I woke up, I knew something was wrong. My stomach was in knots and I had the world’s worst indigestion…enter the fears and horror that goes along with those symptoms (we later found out that Shawn’s adorable little cousin had a stomach virus, of course I only found this out after our trip and after kissing all over his face…) Even though I spent some quality time in the bathroom that morning, I didn’t want to ruin the trip with my icky feels so I sucked it up like a big girl and we continued with our plans. And thankfully, on our way to the dock, we only had to stop the car once on the side of the road (although, once was most definitely enough.)
Next was the boat ride to Catalina. There’s nothing better than feeling sick to your stomach and having the joy of riding on a rocky boat for a few hours. NOTHING. BETTER. I was dehydrated and miserable.
After we arrived on Catalina, I tried to cheer up. The views were a dream. FYI - these photos haven't even been edited. Straight from the camera. It looked like we had traveled across the Atlantic to the likes of Italy or Greece. We stopped at a local cafe where I tried to eat something, and thank the Lord, a gracious waiter gave me some ginger tablets that seemed to have healing powers within them. I was feeling infinitely better.
We decided to explore the island and rented a little golf cart. We visited just about every place we could, and when the day was coming to an end, we walked along the pier taking photos of the famed Catalina Casino.
Although I was quite confused when Shawn asked me to take a few pics of him, I happily snapped away, taking full advantage this opportunity to capture my camera-shy boyfriend.
Only when I took a quick peek to review the photos (I was very focused on the framing and lighting elements) did I notice the eggshell blue box he was holding in his hand.
All I could mutter was, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s in your hand?!’ Slowly, he took away the camera, got on one knee and gave me the sweetest proposal I could have ever imagined.
(Super fun side note: back in high school, we were assigned to do a marriage project and Shawn and myself got paired together. In his pretend proposal, he also proposed on a fishing pier - and ironically, the date of the proposal in our marriage project book was only 3 days off from the actual date we got engaged.)
Have you been to Catalina Island before?! If you ever find yourself in the San Diego area, I'd highly recommend a trip out to this perfect little oasis!