Our story begins like so many others our age…on a dating app.

Our first date was at Joe's favorite sushi restaurant, Wakamono, on the evening of April 18, 2019. Ironically, Joe is allergic to most things on the menu - some are still TBD. On a subsequent date we discovered that we both have a passion to travel over cocktails at our favorite cocktail bar, Wang’s, which is coincidentally attached to…Wakamono. I know what you are thinking. Yes, we do go to other places. That night we came up with a five year travel plan which included trips to the Mediterranean, Japan, the UK, Peru and Argentina, as well as destinations in the States.

Speaking of other places, some evenings Anthony would showcase his culinary skills at his apartment in the South Loop overlooking the beautiful Chicago skyline. One night while watching the sunset Anthony proclaimed, “I like us,” and Joe agreed. That evening we made our relationship official.

One of our first trips together was to Los Angeles, California, to run a Jurassic World themed 5K & 10K at Universal Studios Hollywood. It was a success! We could travel together; even if Joe made Anthony run with two 2 lb margarita glasses filled with epoxy and plastic ice. When you’re running as Jimmy Buffet its always 5 o’clock somewhere.

And then…COVID happened. The world shut down and turned to the Dark Side, but it wasn’t all dark times. We took the next step in our relationship and bought our first condo, moved in together, and…stayed together.

Let’s circle back to travel, which thanks to COVID was now a ten year travel plan. All jokes aside if anyone needs a Japan travel itinerary - ours was multiple years in the making.

Our first overseas trip was to The Eternal City, Rome. Buongiorno! (You have to say it in the Boungiorno Cat voice. If you don’t know what that is - YouTube it.) It was here at the Trevi Fountain that we made our wish with a toss of a coin and in front of thousands of people did our proposals and both said, "Yes." In the days following we boarded Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Magic for an unforgettable cruise around the Mediterranean, which makes it poetic that it will also be the ship that we finally say our, “I do’s.”

The moral of the story is you can find your travel buddy on “an app” and we are glad we did.

We look forward to celebrating with you this October!