WE'RE ENGAGED!

SCENE I: #BOSQUARIUM

If you think the dream that came true was getting engaged, you'd be wrong. No, of course the dream was going to #BOSQUARIUM, or what is perhaps better known to locals as the New England Aquarium. 

To be quite honest, I think a neighborhood PetSmart would offer the same experience as this aquarium.  Were they robbed one night and the thieves only took the fish? Where the ever-loving hell were all the aquatic animals? The good news is that you couldn't care less about most creatures that an aquarium has (re: should have).... because your eyes were set on the penguins – and boy, did you see penguins (and an arguably homophobic sea turtle)

But this stop fulfilled the 2 necessary criteria I had for our engagement-related activities: (1) Had to be reminiscent of one of our previous dates and (2) Had to be an activity you loved. So it checked the boxes at least!

SCENE II: PopUp Bagels

I'd actually rather classify this as an intermission since it was just a fuel stop on the way... nonetheless, it was part of our #experience, so it gets a spot :-)

I have notes. I do. Why is it so god damn LOUD in that store? Why do they give you 8 oz of PACKED cream cheese or butter for 3 bagels?  Who can consume all of that with 3 bagels? How much cream cheese and butter go to waste every day as a result of that store? We are entering an economic recession, people! Get it together!!! 

They do receive bonus points for their beautiful location in the heavily gentrified area of Seaport, though. And by beautiful, I mean the dazzling array of flowers they had around their store. You know I love a good flower. 

If I wanted to continue being strict with my criteria, you could also consider this as a flashback to our bagel date we had in New York :-)

SCENE III: The Escape Room

I was *born* to do escape rooms. I'll never forgive my undergrad "friends" for denying me the joyous experience of an escape room. It's a damn shame it took me until our Almost-Joint-Birthday Party (please see OUR LORE™️ for further details on this topic) to finally do one. However, all I needed was that one time to plant the seed for my eventual proposal to you :-)

This was perhaps even more fun to plan than it was to do. I'd like to give a shoutout to Tina & Mike at Trapology for being the absolute best co-planners I could've had. Between the custom lockbox puzzle that had some of your favorite things hidden in there, all the little trinkets you found along the way, the ~penultimate~ clue that had a QR code to this very website (!) where you importantly had to answer "YES" to being free for the rest of your life (again, excellent choice), and the *final* clue that had a silly ring box in it telling you to turn around so you could see me holding the real prize :-) and to top it all off, they played Fearless (OG) for us over the loudspeakers in the room 🥹

But let's not act like the free keychains we got at the end weren't the real best part of the entire experience... 

SCENE IV: Putt Putt

YOU'RE ENGAGED! I WAS STILL ON THE MARKET! What a time to be alive. 

Look how beautiful and happy you look with your new ring :-) you were GLOWING, baby!!!

As for the 4th and final stop on our journey, we went back to the classics: mini golf. As soon as I saw they had a berry mule on the bar menu, I knew I made the right choice in my chosen putt putt location.

I will admit, there were more children there than I would've liked. However, we did get to witness the next Tiger Woods get multiple hole-in-ones on this crazy little course, so I suppose it was a net win. And we did get to go to Serafina afterwards for some drinks & apps, which was a lovely bonus, and a perfect end to my half of the day!

p.s. maybe when we're back in Texas and in the city that shall not be named, we can go back to that excellent mini golf place we went for a date night :-)