Proposal

A trip to meet up with Mike's Aunt Brenda at the beach in Ocean Grove, New Jersey seemed like the perfect time to Mike for a proposal. Armed with Stacey's grandmother's diamond ring and about half a dozen different possible proposal plans, we headed off.

Plan A- a visit for the two of us to NYC. Sunset on the Staten Island Ferry, the Manhattan skyline in the background, noone around.

Mike - "Stacey..."
Stacey - "Wait a sec, can I just say that I hate NYC!"

Kinda spoiled the moment. Also spoiled Plan B (Empire State Building) and Plan C (Central Park). Just a side note - Stacey does NOT hate NYC and has no idea why she said such a thing. So it was off to meet up with Aunt Brenda, cousin Noel, Brenda's sister and her daughter in NJ. All of whom were aware of Mike's intentions and greeted Mike with raised eyebrows each time we returned to the group, checking Stacey's hand for a ring.

Plan D - Cape May NJ Boardwalk. Unfortunately, this also fell through.

Several other plans also failed, and all too soon Mike was running out of time. On Thursday we were planning to head back home and it was already Wednesday. After several days of beautiful sunny weather, Wednesday was raining, cold, and windy. But too bad, this was going to have to be the day.

Plan ??? - Island Beach State Park (August 13, 1996). With the sand and wind beating down, we started walking along the beach. Mike decided the perfect spot would be near the lighthouse three miles away. However, Stacey decided she wasn't walking that far in the wet nasty sand. Giving up, Mike buried Stacey's feet in the sand so she wouldn't wander off (as she had several other times that week), got down on one soggy knee, and proposed.

By now, you've probably figured out that Stacey said yes. When Mike explained all the attempts she had foiled over the past few days, they both had a few laughs over it. Mike's family greeted us the next morning, singing and cheering.