The plan for this proposal began when I realized that another proposal plan was not going to work. I needed something creative, meaningful and memorable. I've been told I needed to make the proposal a good one and that it would be something that would be talked about for years to come. There were several aspects of the plan that I needed to figure out.

In no particular order:

• I needed to find a good location. It had to be remote enough for a proposal, yet public enough so that a photographer would not seem too out of place.
• I needed to ask her father for his blessings and permission to marry Sandy.
• I needed to buy the ring.
• I needed to create the cache container.
• I needed to recruit accomplices.
• I needed to order the fake rings.
• I needed to create the fake cache page.
• I needed to have the cache planted.
• I needed to have the cache secured and guarded.
• I needed to convince Sandy that I was going to propose on another day other than that Sunday.

I created a fake cache page by pasting together parts of a page and photocopying it. It looked slightly different from the real cache pages, so I photocopied those as well for consistency.

I created the cache container, painted it camouflage green, took it out in the back yard, sprayed it with the garden hose and tossed dirt on it to "age" it and make it look authentic.

I scouted out a location at the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma. I checked for angles for a photographer to shoot from. I checked for entrance points and locations a lookout could be positioned. I took dozens of photographs. I brought my friend Linda to the location as she was going to be the one to "run" the operation. I took GPS coordinates of the locations. I chose 2 sites (site A and site B). I chose 2 plans at one site (plan A1 and A2). I chose 2 possible days (May 30th and June 5th). I approached 5 possible photographers (Brent, Trevor, Tom, Sharon and Gary). I had a back up photographer. I timed how long it took to drive from the look out point to the cache parking lot. (1 min, 5 sec)

I talked to her parents and asked her father for his blessing on May 29th a Saturday. She knew it had to be sometime after that. I acted as though I was disappointed that we would not be engaged by the time of our last premarital class meeting, which I pretended to have thought was on the 31st. When Sandy pointed out that the last class was actually going to be on June 7th and I pretended that that would be good, she thought she had figured out that the proposal would be sometime after the 31st. I then made mention that the proposal would be within a few weeks after talking to her parents. I also asked if she wanted to do something on Tuesday night, the night of the full moon. I asked her if she had something nice she could wear that night. She figured that I was trying to throw her off thinking that Tuesday night was the night by mentioning "within 2 weeks". So at this point Sandy was convinced that it would be Tuesday night.

Gear:

• Walkie Talkies
• Binoculars
• Camera
• Cache Container
• Engagement Ring
• Fake Rings
• Fake cache page
• Map of cache location

Linda and Gary were my accomplices. Linda was the "lookout" and oversaw the entire operation which we had dubbed "Operation Treasure Hunt". Gary was the guard / photographer. Linda and Gary hid the cache container, with the engagement ring in it, behind a bush. Gary was left there to watch the cache. Linda, the lookout, positioned herself and used binoculars to spot our incoming car and walkie talkies notify Gary. He moved from one position (guarding the container) to the photo shoot position once my car had been spotted. Gary was instructed to appear as though he was taking pictures of the ocean. After we walked to the cache, Gary was to remain concealed, but begin taking photos.

I woke up that morning early and a bit nervous. I thought "oh great, she's going to be able to detect something is up because my hands will be sweating". Actually, once I met up with her for the day, all stage fright left me and I was absolutely fine! Within a few minutes my phone rang and it was Sandy telling me that her car's tire had blown and was stuck on the freeway. I wondered what God had planned for me that day! I drove out there to meet her, we called Triple A and got back to my house.

I talked to my mom on the phone and she said she wouldn't be there on that day. This was part of the plan. I handed the phone to Sandy and they chatted for a bit. Sandy and I discussed what we would do that day since things seemed to be turning topsy turvy with the car and my mom canceling. I had to play it cool and pretend that some of the things we talked about were possibilities (bike riding, etc) when I actually had all intention of sticking to the agenda: being at Cabrillo at 2:00.

We left the house with too much time to burn. I needed to figure out strategies to stall and use up time. I was constantly sneaking looks at my watch without letting Sandy see that I was watching the clock.

On the way down Sandy entered the coordinates to several caches into the GPS. I told Sandy that we would be passing by REI (an outdoor, camping, recreational store) and I wanted to stop by to "pick up a few things". We shopped and browsed for a bit, but still not long enough. We would be getting to Cabrillo much too early. We left the store and started heading down to the San Diego area. Sandy wanted to go to a cache in Old Town, but I estimated this would take up TOO much time. I had to steer her away from Old Town, but not bring her to the proposal site just yet. I thought to burn a little time by swinging by my mom's place. We had some oranges for my mom that were in the trunk. I told her they would probably get very warm and it might be a good idea to drop them off at my mom's place. After we did that I realized we were still too early. I then remembered about a picture spot that I have been to before. I told her about the spot and took her there. We snapped a few photos overlooking the San Diego bay.

We then drove to the cache site and I drove slowly near the "lookout" location to make sure that my car was spotted. We then pulled up to the parking lot at the proposal site and I saw Gary with a hat and sunglasses. I smiled as I knew at that point that everything was going to be okay. We passed Gary and proceeded down to the cache area. Sandy followed the coordinates to the cache bush. It was off trail (and I had been warned by rangers about being off trail) so I "spotted" it quickly and gave the container to Sandy. We had fun as Sandy found the ring.

The day was beautiful. I got down on my knee, told Sandy that I loved her and asked her to marry me. She said "yes" and we kissed. I then began to tell her about the plan. I enjoyed watching her reactions as she heard the story unfold. My accomplices came down the hill and we took a few more photos.