It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
In September of 1987 I was invited to a bicycle ride get together by my friend Gylver; he lived in Laguna Hills, California and I was living in Temecula, California. Other friends of "ours" from Santa Barbara would be there as well as some other friends that Gylver knew.
The plan was to ride down the coast for a while, stop and have lunch then ride back and afterwards have a dinner of home made chili.
Not as many people showed up as expected but one was a good looking man named Erich Kern.
We spent most of the ride talking to each other; and we talked all through dinner. Before I went home Erich asked for my phone number. To be honest I don't remember much of the ride except for talking to Erich.
Several nights later Erich called to talk and ask me on a date; we ended up talking on the phone for six hours!
Yes, we took bathroom breaks.
Erich suggested we move in together in, in October but having just started grad school I said no; I needed time and space to do my course work.
At the end of October he proposed. I said yes cause when you know, you KNOW.
After much thought and reflection about what my sister went through with our parents when she got married I knew I did not want a formal wedding and so Erich I decided to elope over Thanksgiving weekend as I also had a small break in my course work.
We found a Rabbi to marry us and we made reservations in Santa Barbara at a B&B for the weekend. We would take our bicycles and spend the weekend doing some rides and on Thanksgiving day I would work on a paper I had due the next week.
Gylver was the Best Man and my friend Kathleen was the Best Woman; we met at the Synagogue and were married and then went out for a nice dinner and afterwards Erich and I drove up the coast.
The rest, you could say is history.
This picture was taken many years later in the 2000's.