And then we got engaged

After a quick ride around the quaint city of Berkley and some disappointingly cold coffee and lemon almond bun cake, we headed South to coastal California. Jono and I are convinced that the most popular store in town other than the Organic Food Store must be the Games Store with board- games for all the Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts and the like.

We were chancing our luck, but we were hopeful that the Computer History Museum would be open, and it was!!! Seated in Silicon Valley among giants Google and Facebook, we found ourselves entranced by the history of computers. Super rad! J Everything was on display from a Google self-driving car to early calculators, punch cards and vacuum tubes to the UNIVAC, ENIAC, DECs, Apple Lisas, old floppy disks of Zork, transistor fabrication, Moore’s law and robots!

A rather late arrival into Monterey, we opted to do the 17 Mile Drive before heading to our accommodation for the evening – and just as well we did! It is a beautiful estate with several golf courses including Pebble Beach where the US Open is sometimes played (5 times, Jono adds). The true beauty of it all is the coastline dotted with Cyprus trees and fynbos-like flowers. We were enchanted! Clint Eastwood and his fellow residents sure know how to spend their nickels and dimes.

We arrived at Carmel-by-the-sea (a place that will forever be etched in my memory). By all appearances, one might have said that we were not even in America but rather in a coastal town in Italy or Greece. The roof for the evening was in the aptly-named “Cobblestone Inn”. We had a delicious meal in a Turkish/middle eastern restaurant with a full on performance by one of the chefs. Great vibe!

Jono woke up feeling under the weather, so after a rather late start to the day we meandered around the town in the car and then to Point Lobos Reserve. Jono had been told by Dyl and Dan that is was awesome and so without me realizing it, he was snooping out the place for the surprise later in the day. We decided that we probably needed hiking stuff and would come back later to do a walk. We watched Ghana narrowly lose to America in a Soccer World Cup group game. Disappointed, I wore “hiking clothes” for our hike including my hiking boots and rather unattractive hiking clothes. Jono said rather hesitantly, “ uh, maybe wear your dress from earlier …. Don’t think we need actual hiking things”…. UMMM! Wasn’t this the whole point of coming back to the hotel… But little did I know… J So, eventually I settled on jeans and a nice top and my hiking shoes…

We arrived at Point Lobos again and parked. There was a beautiful lookout point on a cliff, with fynbos everywhere and the view of the sea in front of us. Jono kept turning around to see if there were any tourists and I thought he just wanted to take photos. We had brought my little tripod and we were having fun with it – using multiple shots and videos… All part of a sneaky plan for Jono to learn how to use my camera so that he could subsequently film an important question! A classic Emmett/Beckwith series of events ensued... In one photo shoot with 8 shots – Jono picked me up and dipped me and when he lifted me back up, my hand bashed into his mouth and his teeth scraped some skin from my thumb (see photos below)… Then, Jono thought that the moment had finally come…. But, just as he is about to set up the video to record the entire thing, my camera dies. 

I am completely oblivious at this point that he is about to propose…. We looked out at the ocean, and he mentioned lovely things to me about our love and how much he adores me, and when I turned around, he was on one knee!

No other tourists, no video, just him and me, together! “Yes, yes I will….” 

Jono had organised Champagne and some of my favourite sea-salt Lindt chocolate for us when we got back to our room at the Inn. We decided to keep it just between us for a few days while we soaked in this new title of "being engaged". Jono had decided to leave the ring in our safe deposit box in New York while we are traveling, so he bought a $10 el cheapo silver ring in San Francisco and proposed with that, with the promise of something else later on.

What followed was an awesome drive down the coast - through Big Sur to Nepenthe. It felt like we were driving Chapman's Peak for 100 miles!