Well what a weekend.....Over the weekend Rachel and I traveled to Williamsburg, VA for a small holiday vacation. Williamsburg has always been a special place for me and I have frequented it many times over the year. It also a place of shear beauty. The plan had been in the works for a couple of months. Secrecy was the name of the game. I was in love with the plan I had created and could not wait to implement it! Of course, the plan did not go as according to plan. A few hiccups caused a quick audible that actually worked out well. In the end, the play was a success and we got engaged. The following is a recap of the proposal day.
The day began at home in Ashland. We stayed in Ashland Friday night to cut down on the drive Saturday. I thought the jig was up Friday night as my parents passed on the ring behind closed doors. When we opened the door, Rachel was standing there. I quickly had to hide the ring in my back pocket. I played pretty good prevent defense to keep her from finding the ring which was quite noticeable in my pocket.
We met up with Ranjo and his fiance at their hotel on our way out of town. Rachel was the only person in the room who did not know what was coming which in itself was kind of fun! From there we began our MUCH easier drive to Williamsburg. Last year we were delayed by a massive snow storm. Our 7 hour drive ended up being a 13 hour nightmare. This year we were met by warm sunny skies. Everything was going as planned.
We arrived on time to our condo in the city. They tried to rope us into some real estate meeting to perhaps one day purchase a condo there. They quickly became disinterested in us when we laughed at them for asking us if our income was at least $50,000. Relieved though, we headed to our condo and changed for our evening.
The plan was simple: Busch Gardens Williamsburg is transformed at Christmas time into Christmastown. Christmastown takes FULL advantage of a park that is annually voted as the most beautiful theme park in North America. No rides were open as Busch Gardens becomes one big experience full of international foods, world class entertainment, and of course international shopping. It would be the perfect primer for our evening.
As Rachel was getting ready I went over the handling of the ring box. I knew I couldn't take it into the park- security would have asked me to empty my pockets or felt it and inquired about it. I knew I had to leave it in the car somewhere safe and out of view. I also had to be careful about the walk to the car. She can't feel the box. I decided to hide in my left jacket pocket which is easily accessible to me. As I opened the door I took the box out slowly, using my body to disguise my action and dropped it into the little compartment on the driver side door. Step one complete...
We began our drive to Busch Gardens by just talking. I don't remember about what- I was focused on the task at hand. We approached Busch Gardens and immediately something seemed wrong. I noticed that the area was quite dark. I was put at ease when I saw a massive light display. Whew. Ok, calm it down, right? Wrong. There was a huge road sign saying that the park is temporarily closed due to it being at capacity. We get up to the gate and the lady tells us that they are closed and that we need to turn around. I was furious because now we were off plan. I didn't know what to do. I could not have anticipated this. I have been coming to this park since I was 12 and NEVER once been turned away due to a crowd. It was bizarre. It was time to scramble.
I DID NOT want to go into Colonial Williamsburg this early. There would still be a lot of people there. I needed at least two more hours. My first thought was a movie? It was a risky play but it hit me that Williamsburg had a Movie Tavern and Sherlock Holmes had just opened. I threw that out to her and she said sure. Ok, audible in motion. In the end though it fit because Movie Tavern is where we went on our first date which also on the 17th of the month. All is well.
I told Rachel when the night was over that I remembered nothing about the movie. I couldn't really tell you what happened which is a shame because I wanted to see it! The movie ended around 9:45 which put us on schedule. We made the short drive to Colonial Williamsburg and parked the car. We parked on the far end of the Duke of Gloucester Street and began the walk. We walked down the cauldron fire lit streets and admired the crystal clear sky and scenery. It was a perfect night to say the least. Not to cold at all.
I was freaking the hell out as we walked closer to the objective. Ground zero was to be the apothecary shop. It seemed appropriate considering Rachel's field of study. There of course was a photographer taking professional pictures of the store fronts and he was at that end of the street taking pictures of the apothecary store! Audible number two was in the works. The closest unique building was the capitol. Luckily it was lit up by fire cauldrons so the scene looked really good. I decided that was going to be the new target.
We approached the west wing of the capitol which looks like the front of it due to its location on the long street. We held each other for a few moments and admired the stars. I was delaying it as long as I could. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was so nervous and timid. I bit down and told her that I loved her very much. She was looking up at the stars when I said that so I took that moment and fell to one knee. I told her I had a question to ask her. She turned to look at me and saw I was on one knee. She then said...
"Right now??"
I asked her to marry me and then she dropped this one...
"Are you sure??"
Needless to say I had achieved my goal of total surprise. She of course said yes. She reached out for the ring and then proceeded to drop my great grandmothers ring. Of course there was little light so we had to look for the ring. Typical though! We found the ring and we worked to place it on her finger. To achieve TOTAL surprise we had to forgo ring sizes. Luckily we got it on, but it needs to be sized.
We agreed upon a 2 day blackout period. We would go dark and not tell anyone about this until we left so that we could enjoy the trip. All in all, it was a heck of a night.
So there you go, the plan, the story, the outcome. It was a great weekend. I didn't know that the Colts won their first game, the Packers lost, Jones got hurt in our game, and that Kim Jong Il died. For me, that's saying something. It was the best vacation I have ever been on.
Sappy post complete. As the week goes on I will get back to the things that aren't as important as marriage- sports. The new MacBook is coming soon! For now, I am very happy to be engaged to an amazing woman!
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