Bonnie: Our first date (February 3) was lunch at Joe Theismann's Restaurant near my office.... Eric had shaved his goatee...so I thought he looked younger than I remembered from the week before.

Eric: I thought our date went really well and we had a good time talking, but I could tell she was older and I wasn't sure if she'd be okay with dating a younger guy.

Bonnie: I said I didn't think it'd be a problem because my grandma dated (then married) a younger guy, so I proposed that since Eric had just moved here we could be "tourist buddies." He said "yes"....

Eric: And did we tour! In the span of one year we went to New York, West Virginia, Ohio, New Mexico, Maryland, Virginia, and, of course, all over Washington, D.C....

Bonnie: Okay, okay...... I had just meant that we could tour around D.C.....but as you can tell we kind of got carried away with each other and with trips! :o)

Eric: Yeah, but we also went to a few Orioles games, a couple Bowie Baysox games (an Orioles minor league team), a Redskins game, a Capitols hockey game, a Wizards basketball game, and cart races in West Virginia.

Bonnie: Annnd.....IT WASN'T ALL SPORTS! We went to some Smithsonian museums and art galleries, the National Arboretum (where we are taking our wedding pictures! see "tourism" section) the National Zoo, Hiking along Great Falls with Jen and Mike, and just driving around site-seeing, bike riding, antiquing.....and a lot of eating.

Next, "The Proposal!"