Will You Marry Me?  − 18 November, 2006

I had been planning for a month to ask Heather to marry me.  I didn't have all the details finalized but I knew that we were going to go to San Francisco.  There were so many things that had to come together to make the trip perfect.  I had decided to take her to our special place, "Jazz at Pearls", where we had gone the last time that we were in San Francisco.  She really loves that place.

I had thought that I didn't want to ask her at dinner, the thought of doing it in front of the random people at the restaurant didn't really sit well with me.  Plus I wanted her to have her ring when we got dressed up to go out that night.  I just didn't know where would be perfect.

I had found a place called Jack Early Park on the internet.  It was described to be a park with amazing views of the bay.  It was even listed as a perfect place for an engagement by Citysearch.  I envisioned a lush park where there might be a few people, but because if it's seclusion, I figured we would have some privacy.

We got up this morning and went over to the Ferry Building where they have an amazing Farmer's Market.  There we had some Chiliquiles for breakfast from one of the vendors.  Then headed over to the Wine mart for a little wine tasting.  We had the best morning.

I told Heather that I wanted to check out this park that I had never seen while living here.   So we climbed on the "F" train that runs up Embarcadero St.  We got off on Bay and walked up two very steep streets to get the entrance to the park.  It was just a stairway that let up to the park.  After 63 steps we reached the top to find the "park".  It was a 4 by 4 concrete slab with a bench.  That was it. Almost like standing on someone's balcony.  I was a bit disappointed, but the views delivered.  We had perfect view of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges, as well as Alcatraz and the Bay itself.  There was another couple there that were having wine and cheese.  I tried to wait them out, but they were camping out and I knew that I could not do this with them there.

Heather finally said "It's so peaceful that I could take a nap right now".  I suggested that we go down the stairs a little to a bench that was halfway down.  It was surrounded by lush trees and bushes.  We walked down to the bench and sat down.  We both started talking about how much we really want to bring Micaela to San Francisco.

We had talked about getting married before in a very hypothetical way.  So, when i started in with "are you sure you want to do this?" she knew what I was talking about and calmly answered "of course i'm sure, i love you and i'm ready when you are."  I then said "OK, let's make it official" and I got down on one knee.  "Are you kidding me?" she replied.

"I love you and Micaela so much; will you marry me?"  She said, "of course i'll marry you, i said that I would"  There was a clamness that I didn't expect.  Then i started to reach into my pocket for the ring.  I think it finally hit her what I was doing.  "You are fucking serious aren't you?  Oh my god, are you really doing this right now?" 

Right about then I pulled out the ring and slipped it on her finger.  Her fingers were swallen from the large hike that we had just done, so the ring didn't fit right away.  I looked at her face and her sunglasses started to fog up.  She took them off and her eyes were welling up with tears.  "Now that you know i'm serious, is your answer still yes?"  "Yes, Yes I will marry you".

She would just giggle off and on for the next 6 hours.

We had the most amazing night.  Dinner at Francis Ford Copoola's Cafe Zoetrope,  then over to Jazz at Pearl's ,   to see Houston Person play the saxaphone.  He was great.

We then went over to the Condor San Francisco  where we saw the Elvin Bishop Band. They are a New Orleans style jazz band and they were great.  The chef of the restaurant even came out and sang some songs. 

What a wonderful day.  It couldn't have gone any better.