A chance meeting at a friend's wedding grew into a conversation, a changed train ticket, and a spur-of-the-moment first date. Grant booked his own train ticket to come visit Patricia in New York the following weekend.
One weekend together turned into another, and another, and before long we were finding excuses to give Amtrak even more money.
With Patricia already having met Grant's family, Patricia decided to invite Grant to Minnesota for Christmas, where he landed in a blizzard and it dropped 3 feet of snow overnight. Patricia led Grant around to show him all her favorite places and things about Minnesota.
Grant even managed to get in his first fender-bender
...with Patricia in the car
...hitting a brand-new Maserati
...driven by a personal injury attorney, who threatened litigation
...in Patricia's mom's car.
After almost 2 years together, we decided it was time to take the largest, most important emotional step thus far in our relationship: Aligning our sports teams.
Patricia agreed to become a Penguins fan, obliging Grant's scream-at-the-TV Penguins fandom. Grant agreed to become a Vikings fan, obliging Patricia's scream-at-the-TV Vikings fandom. The striking of the Vikings-Penguins Accords have been internationally-recognized as an inspiring display of cooperation and diplomacy amongst sports fans.
When Patricia and Grant's neighbors were asked if they share the international diplomat community's opinions on the accords, they responded "NOW THERE'S TWO OF THEM SCREAMING AT THE TV." Historians are unsure of their comments' meaning.
On our first trip to Iceland, it started pouring rain while we were hiking a glacier, and Grant learned the difference between a water-resistant coat and a waterproof coat. Then, Grant with pneumonia, we went snorkelling in glacier water at Þingavellir national park.
Patricia was extremely excited to see the northern lights, but it was cloudy all 3 nights we were there. This wouldn't be our last attempt at visiting.
For Patricia, opportunity came knocking. When a massive career opportunity became available in Boston, it was time for Patricia and Grant to embark on an adventure in a new city: Boston
Familiar to Patricia, a proud BC alum, but utterly foreign to Grant, Boston would become their home for the next few years.
With many bags packed, many new directions to go and trails to blaze, we set off to experience numerous new places.
There's been long walks, tall walks, cold walks, innumerable wrong turns, a trip to the mines, at least one forgotten International Driver's License, and plenty of time for us to discover that the best part of an adventure was sharing it.
