Have you ever tried planning one of the biggest moments or events of your life, taking place in a location you had never been or seen, and putting your faith in someone to execute the entire plan whom you had only met a few days prior through email?  As it turned out, my gut was absolutely right entrusting this wonderful man, Captain GDub.

Since Maggie moved down here, she had not yet visited the Florida Keys but always wanted to.  What a perfect 'smokescreen' of a reason to go on a quick vacation, when in reality there was another plan in the works.  We packed the car for a relaxing few days in Marathon, Florida and headed south toward A1A, the Overseas Highway.  When we arrived at the amazing Tranquility Bay Resort, unbenounced to Maggie, all the gears were in motion as I left a secret bottle at the front desk for GDub to pick up later.  We enjoyed our first two days exploring the Keys and our beautiful resort.  When it came to the big day, apparently I don't hide things very well according to Maggie, as she later told me I'm not a very good actor.  Haha!  I guess it was pretty obvious that I was nervous about all the events about to take place that I had very little control over.  

I called for a cab to take us somewhere for a nice sunset walk before dinner, and the driver promptly took us to Sombrero Beach.  As we arrived, the beach was full of people, despite the expectation that it would be quite sparse (like most other days, so I was told).  The first thing going through my mind was Maggie telling me numerous times she wanted our proposal to be private with minimal to no audience.  Whoops.  As I looked around, GDub was very discrete, taking pictures the entire time we strolled up and down the beach until finally we stumbled across a bottle that had seemingly washed ashore (the bottle I left at the front desk).  The funny thing is that every time GDub would bury the bottle in the sand, someone would come along and dig it up to see what it was.  

So as Maggie pulled the bottle from the sand, she saw a note inside.  A rather lengthy story of a man who was lost and dreamed of being found.  Telling how he has explored, searched, and at times been misdirected, but never lost hope.  "... this is my story... A chapter in the never-ending tale that is now our story."

As she finished, I was on my knee, choked up, barely able to utter the magic words.  And in return, I received a tear-filled, emphatic nod of her head, barely able to verbalize a "yes".  And to this day, she still won't admit that the eruption of cheers and applause of the entire beach was pretty awesome.  It was at that point, GDub came out of hiding and introduced himself to both of us for the first time and informing Maggie he took pictures the entire time.  We gathered ourselves together from all the emotion, took one last stroll on the beach and headed to the dinghy for a short ride to the Captain's sailboat for the evening.

When we got on board, he had wine ready for us and promptly grilled us a wonderful lobster dinner, followed by handmade Key lime cupcakes just for us.  From there, we set sail toward the sunset, and the rest of our lives.