By the time we are off the water and our fish are filleted and in our coolers, it's only 10am. We are ready to hit the road, but not before Joe says, "let's explore the Gorge today. Maybe check out the Clickitat River?" I play along, and say "sure that sounds great!" Even though I'm butt ass tired and know he is too lol. But if it's go time, it's go time baby! I was going to put my big girl sweats on and see where this day takes us! As we are driving towards this spot that Joe wants to show me he says, "You know, I think as long as I'm home by around 4pm, that is totally great!" That's when I knew I was getting proposed to today! In no other world would we get up at 4am and be done with a trip and Joe not try to get home ASAP. And mind you it was only 10:30am and we already had a FULL day! I was definitely on to him, but again, I was going with the flow and letting him take me where he wanted. I wanted to ride this out and see where we were going. As much as I'm sure he was getting nervous, I was also pretty nervous myself! So we get to this spot to pull off where Joe tells me to pull into and he immediately says something to likes of "Crap, there's a ton of people here..." Joe hates going anywhere that's crowded on a regular day, let alone at a proposal. lol. So in my mind I'm wondering if Joe is going to abort the mission because this doesn't look good. So we start walking and the river is quite a ways below us and we're following a very steep ledge that's somewhat of a path. Mind you, I have a torn ACL and this cliff side is STEEP AF! We start walking one way and immediately see a sign that says no trespassing and there's a mini trailer park that resembles more of a homeless camp. You can see the look of dissapointment on Joe's face as he says there is supposed to be a beautiful waterfall here and blue pools of water leading to the river, but it's COMPLETELY dried out lol. Then out of nowhere these two mangy dogs come up to me like they are ready to attack or bite at any minute and are barking very aggressively. At this point, I'm like, there is no way Joe is going to propose right here. And I can see the panic in Joe's eyes. And I'm kinda scared of these dogs and also dying laughing inside because I know this is the exact opposite of how Joe would want to do this. Eventually the owner was able to scream and holler for her dogs to come back to the trailer park lol, and Joe is marching ahead and says, "Maybe we can go down to the river?" As he peaks over he sees tons of fisherman and is like, "crap! there's tons of people down there." And then he just looks at me with a defeated look. And as we are perfectly in a spot with no humans in site, just barely mind you, as just to one side are the fisherman and the other side the trailer park and mangy dogs, he said something like "You know I love you..." And at that point I kind of blacked out. I think he did too. He said a few words but all I could hear in his voice how nervous he was so I think he just wanted to stop talking lol and got down on one knee, which was actually pretty scary because we were on such a slope I was scared for him falling lol. And he asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes! We both got a little teary eyed and as you could feel the weigh lifted off him and sigh of relief he said, " I have so much to tell you!" Joe and I don't keep secrets from each other so it was really hard for him to try to plan this without me knowing. And he spilled all the details leading up to the day, and then I spilled all the ways I was on to him. lol. We both got a good laugh about it all. :)  So, a good part of the details leading up to the day was that he originally planned to propose in a different spot in the Gorge. Somewhere he'd never been, but found it on google earth. At the last minute he sought out the advice of a coworker who was from the area and promised the spot he took me had this beautiful waterfall and that no one would be there. At the last minute she mentioned, that sometimes it dries out but since it rained recently they thought it would be fine. Ha ha. So Joe asks if I would want to see the spot where he was originally planning to take me, and it was on the way back, so I said, definitely! The spot was called Dog Creek Falls. He mentioned he thought of dog creek falls for several reasons. One, because it looked like a beautiful waterfall on the map, but also because he knows how much I love dogs. Which after he told me that, my heart just melted. Even though he didn't actually propose there, the fact that was his thought process was so endearing, especially because he is a cat guy at heart and has 2 cats! So we pull up to Dog Creek Falls pull out and see that there is not one car in the parking lot. We completely have the place to ourselves. Then we hike just a tiny ways in and there is a giant heart painted on the side of the stone wall leading up to the waterfall. And just romantic AF! And then, there it was this gorgeous ever flowing not dried out waterfall and total seclusion. lol. He immediately blurts out, "Damn it! I should have followed my gut! Give me that ring back!" I'm dying laughing, and so is he, because how could you not. It really was the perfect spot. "But you know what?" I said, "We wouldn't have had as great of a story to tell had everything gone perfect. And I still give you 100 percent credit for taking me here on the day you proposed to me. It's still a part of our day and a really special place." On top of all that, we wouldn't have been able to recruit a fisherman to take our photo for us either had he done the proposal there. We spent the next 20 minutes or so there, just taking everything in and getting to have a romantic spot to celebrate and reflect. It was absolutely beautiful! Oh and he did end up telling me all the things he wanted to say during the proposal after his nerves were gone. It was very heartfelt and I am one lucky gal! <3  We finished the day at Skamania Lodge over lunch and a drink to celebrate our engagement, which was also breathtaking, but after half way through our lunch we were fading fast. We were so so tired and still riding the high of all the fish caught and of our engagement. WHAT A DAY! We had a little over an hr drive to get back to my place and you could tell we both wanted to rally for the other, but we also both desperately needed a nap! So we landed on Joe dropping me at my house for a nap before I came over to spend the night. We had grand plans to celebrate that night, but instead we both got a solid nap and were able to have my dog and his kitties in one place as a family unit to celebrate over chili cheese fries and early bed time! lol. The BEST DAY EVER! So happy! :)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDallas Brown is a pop country singer song-writer livin the dream! Archives
May 2020
Categories |
RSS Feed