A Very Exciting Weekend
Considering the way news travels, if you know me I’m guessing you’ve already heard. If not I’m very excited to be the one to tell you! Tracey and I got engaged on the weekend! And get this.. I actually surprised her! If you know Tracey very well, you know she isn’t the type who can be surprised if she knows a surprise is coming. She just doesn’t handle it well, and gets very upset. Not angry upset, just generally frustrated and upset. I’ve come to learn this. Nevertheless I managed to surprise her.
We had talked about it before, where we were heading in life and we both knew that we wanted to be engaged and then married. She knew a proposal was coming down the pipes. I had her ring custom made, and I had told her it wouldn’t be back from the jewelers until Monday the 20th, on which date I was going to propose in a very “not big deal” fashion. The secret was, the ring was actually coming the previous thursday. Earlier in the week before I went to pick it up I suggested that since we both work on manday nights, why not spend a romantic day/evening together on the friday to make the weekend significant to us, and then follow it with the proposal and ring on Monday. She thought it was great, and had no idea I was actually going to propose on our day together. I borrowed this little trick from the pages of the book of my good friend Justin Morton.
My buddy Dave McMurray helped me make all the arrangements for the day. All his suggestions were perfect, more than perfect. After a bit of shopping (and McDonalds) in Barrie we headed up to a little town called Bracebridge. We went and took some photos at the dam/waterfall downtown (we love taking pictures together) checked out some local shops, then we went for dinner. The place we went was called “Wabora Japanese Fusion Steakhouse”. I was a bit hesitant since I had only been there once before in the main dining area. Dave suggested the habachi tables, where they cook the food on a grill that is literally part of your table, right in front of you. I had never eaten or even seen this done before. I was also hesitant since Trace is not a big fan of ethnic food. Despite my concerns the evening was more than perfect, and Tracey loved the food (minus 1 or two things). The server, named Magdalena, was awesome and the chef, named Eddie, was enteretaining and a very good chef. Some of the tricks he did while cooking were unbelievable! Try catching an egg on the side of your flipper! Eddie was also super sensitive about Tracey’s carrot allergy, using separate tools to prepare her dish.
In short, the experience was nothing short of perfect, and the staff had no idea of the importance of the evening. I phoned the manager, Steve, the next day to commend the staff that served us. I was very impressed.
After that we went to Huckleberry Rock Lookout in the hamlet of Milford Bay, another Dave McMurray Suggestion. We had the lookout to ourselves, and the sunset was amazing. Again, I couldn’t have asked for things to have been any more perfect. After a while of taking shots, I got down on one knee and popped the question. This whole time she had remained totally oblivious to the fact that I was actually going to ask her that day. She was so surprised.. it was awesome. It took her a few minutes, but she was finally able to spit out the word “Yes!” which was follewd by much hugging, twirling, jumping and me spinning her around. It was awesome.
Afterwards we went to McDonalds to use the washroom and while we were there picked up some earl grey, which was horrible. We dumped it out and got London Fogs from a Muskoka coffee joint called Olivers, which were amazing!
Everything was perfect, and even though I didn’t mention it, one of my favourite times of the day was the time we spent in the car just talking on the way there and back. I love those times. And I love you Tracey! I am so happy to have started this journey with you:)
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