About Us and the Proposal StoryNeala’s story:
In October of 2004 she received an email from Nancy Mack, the mother of her best friend from high school, Lauren, suggesting that she meet Sam Warren, the son of Nancy’s friend Kathy Warren. While she admits to not responding to the email for a few weeks (“What, my best friend’s mother is trying to set me up? How embarrassing!”), eventually she did say she’d be willing to meet Sam and he emailed her about dinner. For the first months, Neala and Sam were just friends—they swam in Lake Washington together (in the winter even!), went biking, hiking, and snowshoeing together, and went out to eat. It wasn’t until a hike to an alpine lake for a swim in June of 2005 that Neala realized there might be something more to this guy, but then she left for Alaska for three months of fieldwork. While there, they wrote letters, emailed and instant messaged each other, and Sam asked Neala to attend his cousin Andy’s wedding as his guest when she returned from Alaska. They had a great time, and the rest is history. Sam’s story:
In October of 2004 Sam was training for a triathlon and acknowledged to his mother he was a poor swimmer. Nancy Mack wrote Sam an email suggesting he meet a woman named Neala who had just swum around Manhattan Island. A whole paragraph of that email was a dedicated description of Neala’s rosy cheeks. A friendship emerged. Neala swam circles around Sam all that year. Sam kept his head above water, admiring her. When she left for Alaska for her fieldwork, Sam noticed something very great was now afar from him. They wrote often to each other. Neala accepted Sam’s invitation to his cousin Andy’s wedding. Two years later, Sam still had to compete with his dog Merlin for Neala’s attention, so he asked her to marry him since that was something Merlin was not capable of offering to her. She said yes, wearing waders, and the rest is history.
The proposal:This went down October 3, 2007 on the Elwha River of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. In the photos, Neala appears shocked because she thought she was participating in a field survey, helping her friend and labmate George Pess with his research! L Sam did a lot of planning for this event. First he talked to Neala’s parents and his own about the potential of their marriage. Next he met with George to organize the set-up. When George asked Neala to assist him with his chinook salmon fieldwork on the Elwha River, Neala was so excited that Sam was worried she would be disappointed to later learn it a ruse. The Elwha is a big deal after all—two of its large dams will be removed in 2012, restoring fish habitat. Over time, Sam had assembled a cache of supplies in the basement of Bob and Andrea Kalus’s house, as well as Neala’s engagement “ring”, a bright red inflatable double touring kayak. Sam told Neala he had meetings all day long Oct. 2 followed by the overnight shift in the ED, so he would not see her again until her return from the Elwha. Sam had Marlis DeJongh help create an alibi for Merlin as well. On Oct. 2 Sam and Merlin took the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula, picked up 10 buckets of dahlias courtesy of Catherine Copass Thompson, and chose the sweet spot along the Elwha, with the help of an Elwha tribal fishery staff scientist. That night Sam stayed at the Lake Crescent Lodge, a historic hotel built for Teddy Roosevelt’s trip to the Olympic Peninsula (with the hope—later successful—to make the area a Meanwhile, Neala woke up early to catch the ferry out to the Olympic Peninsula with George. It was a beautiful morning—fresh snow on the mountains and a mix of sun and clouds. George and Neala stopped at the Elwha fishery headquarters and picked up Elwha fishery staff members and the raft in which to float down in the river. At the river, George claimed he “forgot something,” so sent Neala down the river with two fishery staff members in her waders and full foul weather gear, as it had started raining. They got to float for about 15 minutes through beautiful scenery and saw a number of spawning chinook salmon. Then they came around the corner and Neala remembers seeing flowers and a picnic site set up and thinking “how nice for someone.” They slowed down and headed towards the bank, and a dog came out from behind a bush. Neala almost said out loud, “That’s funny, I have a dog just like that!” when Sam came out from around the corner! Carrying flowers and a box! She was totally shocked! Sam was supposed to be at work! This was supposed to be fieldwork! She finally looked closer at the flowers and realized they spelled They celebrated with a delicious cashew and cauliflower soup, macaroni and cheese with tuna fish (one of Neala’s favorites), and mint chocolate cake. After hanging out at the engagement site with the Elwha fisheries gang and thanking them for all their work, Neala and Sam headed back to the Lake Crescent Lodge and found the kayak. They had an inaugural paddle the next day. It was a wonderfully memorable event, and the rest is history! |
Neala was born in Burnaby, near Vancouver, BC, Canada and moved to Pullman when she was in first grade. She grew up swimming competitively and attended Kenyon College in Ohio, where she also swam and enjoyed the Midwestern charm. After graduating with a degree in biology she moved back west, to Berkeley, CA and worked at a boring job but enjoyed open water swimming there. In 2004 she moved up to Seattle to attend grad school at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, where she is currently working towards her PhD. 
Sam was born in Moscow, Idaho. He spent much of his boyhood traipsing around the countryside and climbing trees. He thinks he had a very happy childhood. He does not remember the temper tantrums his parents may cite, but he does remember not wanting to grow up. He was partially civilized by the Moscow public schools where he also played football and wrestled. He studied biochemistry at Occidental College in Los Angeles, medicine at Stanford, and moved to Seattle for his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington. He currently works at Harborview Medical Center in the Emergency Department. 
ittle did she know she would float around the corner of the river and find Sam and Merlin (our dog) in the wait for her with flowers and a picnic. 
national park). The next morning he got up early, inflated the kayak and set it out on the shore of Lake Crescent, and returned to the sweet spot. He spelled “MARRY ME?” with the flowers, set up the picnic, and Merlin and he sat together in the bushes to wait for Neala. 
something—“MARRY ME”—and Sam was now down on one knee saying something! She had no idea what he said but realized, “This is it! Holy cow!” She then realized she was supposed to say something, so managed to say “Of course!” The Elwha fisheries member took eight photos in 30 seconds, and most of them were of Neala sitting in one place in the boat, unable to move. Finally she did, and received the flowers from Sam and her great-grandmother’s ring in the box. We are very glad we have photos from this event! 