[ Written by Bernice ]
Drew is a mountain climber. Not one who has to climb all the time but he has several under his belt that are insane – Mt. Rainer and Mt. Whitney are his record breaking climbs and several “small” ones like Mt. Marcy in the Adirondacks. When we began to date, I knew this would be an issue for I am a “need coffee now” kind of city girl that will take all kinds of risk in real estate and none with nature.
Obviously this is a problem!
Well, the great thing about getting older is you either do one of two things. 1. Get set in your ways or 2. Get curious and try things. Luckily for Drew, I am on the curious side of the isle when it comes to aging!
So for his 30th birthday, I surprised him with a trip to Washington that including wandering cities and towns, camping and hiking up a “small” mountain called Goat’s Peak in the Northern Cascades. I committed to being curious as I knew it was something I had to get over to fully embrace and understand Drew.
So… we did it! (Photo for show!) Drew and I embarked on a climb up Goat’s Peak with close friends that live in the PNW. As we all adventured up, many of the expert climbers went ahead while I slowly made my way up to the top with Drew, Bob and Sam. Drew put me in front of him, letting me set the pace for the two of us… never stressing me out, softly giving me words of encouragement, not judging me when I needed to stop for water and always being patient. He knew he couldn’t rush it for my sanity and I knew I had to keep going for him and our friends waiting for us. I can’t be a whimp now, can I? So that I did. Up we went! Along that trek, I commented maybe 40 times on how amazing the smell of evergreen was… grabbing branches and putting them up to my nose over and over again. There is nothing like the fresh smell of the Pacific North West! And finally… we reached the top of what is one of the best views I’ve ever seen – the Northern Cascades are magical – crisp air and gigantic mountains… wow… just wow!
At that moment, I knew in my heart that Drew’s patience and determination is something so sweet and unique… and I understood him in a way I could never before.
So when you see the wedding invites with the pine needles, know that I carried around pine needles back to Buffalo and put them in a jar and smelled them everyday longing to go back to the Northern Cascades and remembering the trip we epic trip we took together.
Drew and Bernice 