The Proposal

With Ben back from Houston (yipee!) and his post (and potential future posts), I guess it's time to blog about my side of the story....

Ben brought up the idea of going to Belgium on the night before we were to fly out of LAX. He thought it would be cool to drive down to Brugge immediately after our arrival into Amsterdam for two days. He informed me he had some plans and that I would just have to be surprised. Usually I would demand to know the details, as I can be a slight control freak, but I was too busy running around preparing the house at 1am to think. I remember saying "that sounds like fun... whatever you want to do is fine by me..." as I folded clothes, half listening.

We arrived late Sunday night and drove around the narrow streets looking for the hotel Ben had booked. I remember thinking the town looked very nice, but I didn't truly appreciate it until I saw it in the daylight (and after some much needed sleep). The town was very quaint in old-European style with cobblestone streets, old buildings, cute cafes, and friendly people. After a nice breakfast, in what reminded me of an English garden, we spent the first morning wandering the city. We did some browsing in stores, admired the swans and doves in the waterways around the city, and tasted some of the worlds' best chocolate.

During our wandering, Ben was acting as though he had a specific location to get to. I didn't really think anything of it as he always has something he wants to show me, whether I will be interested in seeing it or not (I think back to the oil museum in Stavanger, Norway). The specific location turned out to be a large lake next to a old castle and park called Minnewater (the Lake of Love). We sat on the park bench in a private area gazing at the lake and enjoying the moment. After awhile we decide to go have some lunch, and as I turned back around from getting my purse off of the bench, he was on one knee with tears in his eyes and a gorgeous ring in his hand asking me to marry him. To be honest I don't really remember what was said because when I saw him on one knee everything got fuzzy. Ben encouraged me to sit down (I'm guessing I didn't look very good) and then told me I never gave him an answer. I smiled, said Yes, gave him a great big hug and kiss, and told him I love you! He then asked if I wanted the ring and I am happily held out my left hand for him to put the ring on.

The rest of the day (and the next) we happily continued exploring the city with big grins on our faces, and then continued the fun together through four more countries over the next two weeks.

So...perfect town, perfect spot, perfect proposal - Ben planned everything. . . perfectly!