It all started with a message on a dating app.

Well, but it didn’t - not exactly. Chris and Rachel were both born in Quincy, IL. They both graduated from Quincy Senior High School in 2012, along the way sharing some classes and too many hours in the QHS music department.

In 2012, Chris started at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA. A year later, Rachel did too. She asked him some questions about the school before enrolling, and they overlapped in various small ways over the next three years - mutual friends, a couple lunch tables, the college Writing Studio. In 2016 they both graduated. Rachel went home to Quincy and Chris spent the summer in Irvine, CA. But by happenstance, when they overlapped in Quincy that summer, they started spending time together. And then they “matched” - six days before Chris moved to Atlanta. In what could be the plot of a substandard rom com, they went on a date a day for the next six days and said “let’s make it work.”

It worked.

Chris lived in Atlanta for a year. They spent weekends together exploring the city and took a trip to old St. Augustine, FL.

They next adventured to Davis, CA, and then to Sacramento, where they explored the Sierras, the Pacific coastline, and several of the great American cities. Chris racked up law school debt and Rachel worked for Legal Services of Northern California.

They found a wheezy five-year old cat on clearance at the local animal shelter, named her Lyra, and fattened her up.

In the early stages of the pandemic, they hauled their lives to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They’ve scaled mountains and mesas, taken in high desert vistas and alpine beauty.

They took home an eight-week-old, five-pound ball of fluff they named Freya.

And on March 25, 2021, on the snowy crest of the mountains overlooking their home, they decided to keep this adventure going for life.

Thanks for being a part of our journey. Next chapter: July 2, 2022, back where it all began.