It was a scavenger hunt.

Jenny found a note when she got home from a tennis lesson that said, "It is a big night my love! Take a shower and put on a comfortable dress. Then have a fruity snack. Love, Mystery Man."

She was supposed to find a crossword puzzle next to her favorite frozen strawberry popsicles, and the crossword puzzle was supposed to send her to Nitin's parent's house...but this is when things started going a bit haywire.

She ate a banana, searched the cabinets, searched the fruit basket, and checked the refrigerator, but could not find another clue. She double checked each spot, but got a bit clumsy in her excitement and broke a glass bottle of salad dressing on the kitchen floor.

After cleaning it up, she received a buzz from the front lobby of the apartment.

The limo was not supposed to come into the story until 3 clues later, but unfortunately, the driver mistakenly buzzed her to come downstairs saying, "Jenny, come down. Your driver is here." He was supposed to be hiding in the parking lot behind our building.

Confused and giddy, Jenny sprinted downstairs in her sun dress. Then, with the driver confused, and Jenny confused, they both called Nitin. Nitin told the driver not to let her go, and told Jenny to go upstairs and find a COLD fruity snack. :) In her excitement, Jenny had run out of the apartment without her keys and was now locked out, so she had to buzz a dozen or so apartments until someone let her back in.

Finally, she found the popsicles and the crossword puzzle. All of the clues in the crossword puzzle related to fun Jenny and Nitin memories. But by this point, her focus was blurred by her shaking hands and excited giggling , so she called Nitin for help on the last word in her clue. The clue sent her back to the limo which took her to Nitin's parents' house. This was Jenny's first time in a limo!

At Nitin's parents' place, his Mom told Jenny that the mystery man left something for her downstairs. She found a maze with a rose. The maze had 6 different end points- some of our favorite restaurants, a friend's house, Nitin's office, and two phone numbers.

In Nitin's Dad's excitement, he decided to join Jenny on the scavenger hunt. He tried to grab the maze from her and accidentally blurted out the clue that was part of the original plan before the driver's mistake.

Because Nitin had hand-drawn the maze with squiggly lines, it was nearly impossible to complete. So Jenny used the process of elimination on the end points and figured out that one of the phone numbers belonged to her best friend, Addi.

Jenny called Addi and was given her next clue. The limo driver gave her a note with a poem to enjoy on her ride. Jenny thought she was coming back to our apartment, based on the clue Nitin's dad had accidentally given, but the limo driver was instructed to drive somewhere else under the new plan.

After a suspenseful ride, Jenny finally made it to Squire's Castle, a beautiful part of North Chagrin Metropark with a castle in the background. Nitin was waiting there with a bagel and lox picnic, fruit, cheese, wine, coals (for fire), and smores (her favorite dessert.)

Nitin got on one knee and proposed, and a bunch of people who were watching from the castle started applauding.

She said yes, and we had a wonderful picnic. It was an absolutely perfect evening and neither of us could have asked for more.