Proposal Story

From Raja's perspective:

In April 2012, Jennie and I had been dating for 3 years and living together for 2.  By that point, my life was in a good spot, mostly because I was with this wonderful woman.  One of the awesome things that had happened was that I had obtained a lecturer position at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.  That meant that if Jennie and I wanted to go on vacation, we would have to do it over my winter break, my spring break, or my summer term.  So we decided to do an epic roadtrip from LA to San Francisco, with stops at Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Big Sur.

Here are some of the highlights:

LA - Stayed with a family friend, Darlene.  Went to Griffith observatory and almost saw a Clippers game.

Jennie having a hopping good time in LA

Santa Barbara - Stayed with friends of Jennie, Kristen, Sean, and Ian.  Almost lost to a 6 year old in bowling.  Got to see the edge of UCSB.

Yeah, I almost got beat by this smiley kid.

San Luis Obispo - Stayed at Badger Camp in Montana De Oro State Park.  Went to dinner in San Luis Obispo and soaked in sulfur springs at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort.  Went back to camp.  Almost got eaten by coyotes, but I scared them off with my manliness.

Here's our trusty tent.  You can call him Mr. Tent.

Drove up the coast some more.  Views were awesome.  Saw some seals.

Now this is the life.

Went to the Big Sur area.  Spent the night at an awesome place called Treebones Resort.  We lounged in a whirlpool, hiked around, got engaged, had a great dinner, and slept in a human nest.  All in all, a great time

Raja inside the human nest.

Jennie and Raja inside the human nest

Jennie looking at a bird from the human nest?

Sunset at the human nest post proposal and Jennie saying yes.

The whole process of popping the question basically revolved around getting Jennie to the human nest at sunset.  As she will recall, she thought it was weird at the time that I kept insisting we get to the human nest at sunset.  I think it was worth it.  Afterwards, we had dinner at the resort, slept in the human nest, and woke up the next morning wet from the fog coming off the ocean. Even though we were wet, the view was awesome.

Nighttime in the human nest.  That little chickey is engaged.

Morning in the human nest.  Good morning Maunnamalai to be

View from hunan nest

That morning, we did some yoga with the cook of the resort and continued driving up the coast to San Francisco where we stayed with my cousin Ravi, his wife Cecilia, and their two kids Asha and Aidan.  Along the way, we hiked in a state park and saw some enormous trees and went sea kayaking in Monterey Bay.

Awesome pic of Jennie looking at some big trees.

Sea kayaking in Monterey Bay

Dennis the Menace Playground in Monterey, CA.

Jennie's Mount Everest:)

There are so many more pics from the trip, but I'll stop here.  Writing this has been a lot of fun, reminding me of all the good times.  Here's to more in the future.