Russell and Caitlin met after both decided to join the modern world and download a dating app called Hinge. After gaining Caitlin’s interest with a terrible joke (“How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice!”) she then insisted on talking for a significant amount of time before meeting in person. This was during the first year of quarantine and both felt they needed to be certain that meeting face to face was worth risking their health.

And so, they (finally) met in person in October 2020 after almost a full month of texting, phone calls, and a video chat. What was originally meant to be an hour and a half of coffee and chatting turned into more than seven hours of wandering around, talking, and hand holding.

More dates followed. After a couple of months both had firmly decided that they were ready to delete the apps and try out the whole relationship thing. Soon they were making lots of plans together, like sharing a living space and adopting a dog. Both of which they did. Caitlin, Russell, and Poppy (a very cute, 3.5 legged dog) were very happily living life and experiencing new things.

Almost a year after they first met, Russell and Caitlin went on a road trip to the Adirondacks. They spent time walking around small towns, visiting nature exhibits, and even decided to give hiking a try on a particularly nice day. They were already deep into the mountains with the goal of seeing natural waterfalls and ancient stones and they were feeling adventurous when they saw signs for a hiking trail.

Russell proposed in the middle of a wildflower meadow on top of a mountain because “the lighting just seemed perfect, coming through the treetops like that.” They both teared up a bit from the emotion and the pollen, and Caitlin obviously said yes.