by Dan

Shefali and I were going on a week-long vacation to San Francisco. Both of our birthdays had just passed, and we hadn't yet had a chance to celebrate. Using that as cover, I suggested we do something special our first full night in San Francisco, a Saturday. We planned to go to the beach to watch the sun set over the Pacific, and then go out to dinner at a nice restaurant. I planned to propose to her on the beach at sunset.

We got out late that Saturday morning, did some sightseeing, then went back to the hotel. I said let's get changed and head to the beach for the sunset. Shefali said no, she's kind of tired, let's skip the sunset, rest at the hotel for a while, then just go to dinner. Not wanting to force it, I agreed and changed my plan. We would watch the sunset on Sunday instead, and that's when I would propose.

On Sunday we decided to drive to Monterrey. We got out late, spent a long time there, and it became clear that we wouldn't make it back to San Francisco in time for the sunset. No problem, I thought. The drive back to San Francisco is along Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. I figured that when it got near the time, we would pull off at a scenic lookout point, watch the sun set over the Pacific, and that's when I would propose.

Unfortunately, the Pacific coast is not straight. It curves around Monterrey Bay. When it got close to the time, we pulled over and were facing South, with the sun setting over trees to our right. It wasn't particularly scenic, so we just spent a minute or two there and then got back into the car and continued.

At this point I decided I had to find a way to end it. That night we got back to San Francisco and saw a movie, and then I suggested we drive across the bridges to see the view at night. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and up into the Marin Headlands, and stopped at a scenic lookout point. We got out and had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, with the city of San Francisco lit up in the background. It was there, at about 1am on May 5th, 2003, that I got down on one knee and proposed.