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As told by Michael
(after being asked a million
times to tell the story!)
I bought the ring before
Thanksgiving, as soon as I learned I would be traveling to
California in December, for work. After gathering the courage to
ask her parents for permission, and getting their approval,
(whew!) the plans began to come
together.
I arranged for Jeanne to fly
out to meet me in San Diego for a long weekend. There were
co-conspirators, but they shall remain unnamed. We stayed
at the Marriott Coronado Island Resort (highly
recommended!). The first night in town, we walked along
the water to a nice bay view restaurant and later enjoyed the
evening checking out the various shops. The night turned
out to be fairly cold, and we weren't dressed for it, so we
returned to the Hotel to relax.
After a short while, we hopped
in the car to check out the historic Hotel del Coronado on the
other side of the Island, and have a few drinks. We parked
near the hotel, which was all decked out in lights for
Christmas. I told Jeanne that I wanted to go onto the
beach and enter the hotel from there, so we walked towards the
sand. During that walk, she shivered and complained a
little about the cold. I offered to just go directly to
the hotel, but luckily, she allowed me to take her onto the
beach. The wind was blowing briskly at that point.
The sand on the beach had been
blown perfectly smooth, and not one footprint was there.
Perfect. You see, Jeanne likes the "Footprints" religious
calendars and such. We took a few steps and she mentioned
that it looked just like her new calendar which I had *ahem*
given her earlier that day. She then started to write "I
love you" in the sand, and we played around for a while just
writing things in the sand with our feet. When I got the
chance, I knelt down and wrote a message for Jeanne to come back
and read. She actually got a picture of me writing this!
When she did, she read the message "Jeanne, will you marry me?"
Her first response was "Of course I will." However, it was
very casual...she didn't notice the ring I was holding in my
left hand! When I told her this was for real, she looked
at the ring and jumped up to kiss me. She acted surprised,
but I think she knew all along! |
