We met at the University of Denver in 1988, when Alan was a sophomore and Ariel was a freshman. We became good friends and stayed in touch through the years. Ariel visited Alan while he was living in St. Louis in the early 1990s and Alan visited Ariel while on business in Portland in 2014. It was all strictly platonic yet we were very aware of a strong bond.

In early 2023 while Alan was going through a divorce (and Ariel had been divorced herself for several years) we began to talk, text, and video chat more frequently. Soon, we were making plans to meet up - agreeing that we would either fail spectacularly or have a tremendous romance. It was explosive and the only downside was the time we spent apart. In February of 2024, Ariel moved from Portland to Deerfield, Illinois to live with Alan. In September Alan surprised Ariel by proposing Marriage on her birthday in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In October of 2024, we moved to Taos planning to explore several western towns. Within a few weeks, however, we decided we didn’t need to look any further, and in January, 2025 we closed on our new home in Taos!

We can’t wait for you to visit and see why this is known as the land of enchantment.

Photos