Hey John and Jenny: The Proposal

It all started when Jenny & I decided to go on vacation together. We finally decided on a destination, Soufriere in St. Lucia. Little did Jenny know what I had in store for our get away.

It began on Wednesday the 9th of February at 5:00am with one flight after the other not going according to plan. We arrived at the Mago Estate on Thursday at 1:30am after four plane connections and an hour and a half taxi ride on roads that would put Lumbard Street to shame. The frustration and anger was forgotten the moment we woke up and looked out from our mountain side villa onto the small town of Soufriere. Surrounded by dense rainforest, crystal clear water as far as you can see and the Petit Pitons touch the shoreline making the view one of the most majestic we have seen. Let the vacation begin!! Starting our day off with breakfast I new nothing was as you might think it was when we received hot dogs in place of sausage. After a steep walk down hill we are approached by Sunshine, one of the many aggressive "business men" in this quaint little town who set us up with his friend Bushman who has a boat. We took a short water taxi ride over to a neighboring resort, Anse Chastene, where we enjoyed the black sand beach and a few Caribbean cocktails for most of the day.

He came back later that afternoon to pick us up and we headed back up the mountain, putting the advanced setting on a stair master to shame only to head back down later that evening to have some home town creole food and a few more Pitons to help wash it down. I can go on and on about one of the best trips of my life, but I have one thing on my mind the moment we stepped of the plane and the main reason you are reading this today. So let us skip over to an ever lasting memory that will be Friday the 11th of February, 2011.
The morning of, I am impressed with how calm I am considering the events that are soon to come. I am able to retrieve the ring from a hiding spot I selected in the room. Trust me, I wanted it to be in the safe that the room was provided with, but unfortunately the safe was not bolted to the wall!! It was perched on top of another safe that we did not have access to. Hind site now that it was in my pocket. Once again we head up the steepest flight of stairs to the main office combination, outdoor lobby of the Mago to meet up with our taxi driver. Jenny being a big planner herself was on pins and needles because I could only tell her some of what I had in store for us that morning.

We arrive at the Diamond Waterfall Botanical gardens after a short trip to the edge of town. After walking through the many paths provided we finally found ourselves a few hundred feet from the Diamond waterfall. As I video Jenny walking up to the waterfall I investigate into my pocket for the thousandth time to make sure the ring was there. We took a few pictures and we laughed and talked a little while as I was waiting for a few other visitors to leave the area, and then looking back down the path that brought us there to make sure we were alone.

As we stand there facing the waterfall, my arms wrapped around this beautiful woman that I know full well I want to spend the rest of my life with. I whisper in her ear, "Jenny I love you so very much" as I begin to get down on one knee to ask her, we lock eyes, as tears are already pouring out of hers, I am trying to hold back mine, I say "I want to spend the rest of my life with you....will you marry me." After a few "oh my gods" and a "YES!!" Jenny fell into my arms. At that same moment I was proposing, a tour bus group of thirty people snuck up behind me and a loud applause filled the air. We were then approached shortly after by a woman who was on the tour. She was able to take a picture of the moment and we exchanged email address. How fortunate we where to have that moment captured.

We left the botanical gardens shortly after for the second part of my plan. I had the taxi driver waiting to take us on a short drive over to a secluded beach. We had the beach all to ourselves to swim and snorkel around for a while. The water was cool, the sand was warm and the sun bright overhead. A couple old wooden boats were tied up to the shoreline and a large catamaran sailboat was a few hundred yards out from the beach. It was our own private beach for the afternoon. Shortly after we emerged from the water a few of the staff from the Mago showed up to set up a picnic underneath a low lying tree providing us some cool shade. Across the table cloth they placed plates of assorted fruits, veggies, dips, chicken, fresh fish, and a bottle of champagne before once again leaving us to our romantic seclusion from the world.