Weekend Getaway to San Francisco
So I got engaged in August 2016 in San Francisco: I got my girlfriend’s boss to send her to a weekend training conference in California. For my cover story, I was already out of the country the week before (in South Korea no less) for work - so reason to suspect anything. In truth, I was hiding out at friend’s house for a few days before flying out the day before to make sure everything was in place. There were a few moments of panic during the final stretch but spoiler alert: everything worked out.
This trip was a bit of an excuse to rent and try and out some nicer camera gear than we had at the time. I spent most of this trip with the Canon 6D and 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM II.
Quick Links
Thursday
Twas the night before
I flew out the day before both to make sure everything was in place and ready but also to avoid the risk of both of us being at the airport at the same time. It’s a super weird (and cool!) to be in an airport that is shut down overnight.
On site!
That all went down at Hotel Nikko. There was a short list of hotels that hit my goldilocks requirements:
It had to be a boutique-esque hotel to fit my cover story
A certain distance from the airport by taxi — she would be taking a cab from the airport and I needed to have a predictable time window of her arrival; it also needed to be close enough to a train-station stop as I would be taking the train
Central enough that we weren’t spending too much time getting to places
Needed to be a tower-style since I was planning on having the window open behind me and needed light
The onsite restaurant needed to be something I wanted to try
Cost was also a factor: while this certainly wasn’t inexpensive, the price-spread in a two block radius was ridiculous (there were some hotels going for triple the rate).
Friday
So after the charade ended, we went to see the Golden Gate Park. There are more ‘exhibits’ to visit here than we had time to really visit — we really only hit up the Japanese Tea Garden. The Japanese Tea Garden was super tranquil and very much a self-contained world inside the greater park.
Golden Gate Park
Cupid's Span the Bay Bridge
Before dinner, we had a bit of time to visit Cupid’s Span and the Bay Bridge as luckily, it was only a few minutes’ walk from the restaurant. Dinner was at EPIC Steak and spoiler, the restaurant lived up to the name.
In a bit of a funny turn of events, I had made my reservation using OpenTable and requested a specific table and noted that this would be a post-engagement dinner. EPIC called me the day prior while I was waiting for an unrelated call from the hotel - I looked at the area code and just assumed it was the hotel and went to the front desk (and well… I don’t ever really take phone calls). Turns out EPIC was calling to double check that the engagement dinner was still a go - I’m guessing that they’ve had things go south before (ouch)!
Making our way back
At night, the Bay Bridge lights come on and it’s really very pretty (this is why I had the table-request for dinner). We spent a bit of time here struggling to take low-light photos before heading back to the hotel as the fog rolled in. The camera struggled with the low-light even though I think it performed admirably considering it’s age (and that I still jittery with excitement).
Saturday
Battery Spencer & the Golden Gate Bridge
I had a super ambitious plan for Saturday: to start from the far side of the bridge and work our way back across the bridge towards Fisherman’s Wharf. I had thought originally to only go as far as the near-side of the bridge and take pictures from there but to fly a bazillionty miles out to only go to the south side of the bridge felt silly. It was definitely worth it: the north side was definitely less crowded! It was very surreal to see the fog up close and have pockets of visibility come and go.
The longest walk of our lives
While the actual distance may not have been that much (about 5km), we needed to be at the Wharf in time for the next surprise. We stopped at the Wave Organ for a bit of a rest before continuing on our way.
Bay Cruise
The last surprise of the day, I booked a Bridge 2 Bridge Cruise - it’s a super cost effective way of getting some closer wide shots of the bridge. There are a couple of nearby museum warships as well but we didn’t get a chance to visit.
Misc
The architecture of SF is very unique: there are ‘whimsical buildings’ scattered amongst all of the modern towers. There’s also a crazy variation in inclination!
How did it go down?
What was supposed to happen
I booked the room for three nights (since I was arriving a day early); as far as my girlfriend was concerned, this was a two night stay
Upon checking in, the desk agent was supposed to go get a manager immediately — it was literally the first line in the reservation notes. The manager would then finish the rest of the check-in and let her know that there was a hotel tour for her after she dropped off her bags (this is a somewhat common occurrence in the hotel industry)
I expected that there would be about a 5-10 minute delay as she dropped off her bags, freshened up and came downstairs for the tour
During the hotel tour, I would let myself back into the room
The hotel tour would end back at the room where I would be waiting
How it actually went down
Shift change at this hotel is around 0750 — I specifically wait until after shift change to come downstairs to meet up with the new shift leader and verify everything is good to go
My girlfriend arrives at around 0950. The desk agent for the shift was a newbie - complete with an ‘In Training’ badge. I’m guessing muscle memory took over and she let it slip that it was a three night stay before being quizzically correct by my girlfriend that it was only two nights
It was at this point she read the reservation notes before running off to go find a manager. She’s disappeared in the back office for a good five minutes.
Thankfully the manager smooths everything over however in the hubbub, nobody suggested that the tour was starting soon (remember how I mentally allotted 5-10 minutes?)
Over the course of the next 30 minutes, I’m sweating bullets wondering if my girlfriend had snuck out the stairs or something — and I’m being watched like a hawk by a security guard
I cave in and call one of the managers asking him to call up to the room to gently suggest ‘HURRY UP’
A few moments later, I see my girlfriend come out of the elevator and head off on the tour - we can finally get this show on the road
I get upstairs only to find out I’ve been locked out of the room. When making keys for a room, you can either Add key-cards to a room, or Replace them. During the excitement, newbie replaced my keys so. Another call to the manager and he meets me at the room, bringing along the same security guard who’s been eyeing me.
The security guard overrides the door and I’m in. At this point I don’t really an idea of how much time has passed and how far along the tour has progressed so I frantically setup a couple cameras
I get a few moments to panic quietly to myself before I hear someone opening the door…
So fun times, I captured my heart-rate during all of this…
FAQ
Did she say yes? Yes
Did you have a speech? Did you get down on one knee? Yes and yes
Did you ask for permission? Yes
Was she surprised? Yup
Why did you propose then in August?
I wanted to line up my proposal with a meteor shower; on the off chance that we could catch it during the trip but also because it would give us something celebrate. August lined up perfectly for the Perseids Meteor Shower
Based on the historical weather trends for SF, the weather conditions were great
Our five year anniversary had passed in July previously and I had really played up the notion that I might propose then - but didn’t (in fact, I’d been teasing it for almost a year at this point). After the anniversary came and gone, she let her guard down
Why San Francisco? Did you consider any other locations?
I wanted to pick a location that was so preposterous that she’d never suspect it
The shortlist was San Francisco, Santorini, and Paris. Of the three, San Francisco was the most cost effective to get to
I considered a few locations in Canada as well but it was (sadly), cheaper to go to San Francisco (!!)
How far in advance did you plan this? Just over three years to put the plan together (with a few hiccups along the way)
Why did you use South Korea as a cover story? It was in a sufficiently different time zone that she wouldn’t be thrown off if I didn’t reply and I had access to photos that I could share to suggest I was in Korea.
Related
If you want to see the story unfold from her perspective…
