Love Landmark #1: Queen Anne

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Love Landmark #1: Queen Anne. Handpainted by Shaun.


For the next few weeks, we are going to post a few of our "Love Landmarks." Read about all the places we've traveled to that have been significant milestones in our relationship. These love landmarks will be the centerpieces at our wedding reception! (Note: these "landmarks" are not to be confused with the "Seattle Checklist" that we posted last week - that's a purely practical guidebook to our favorite spots in Seattle, while these "landmarks" are poetic, in-depth anecdotes about our relationship). P.S. All are written by Shaun!

Queen Anne—
Considering that Queen Anne is home to the little United Methodist college where Kaitlin and Shaun met, Queen Anne has some prime love real estate for the couple. In September 2007, Kaitlin and Shaun found themselves in their first creative writing class together at Seattle Pacific University (SPU). Shaun was still wearing his punk-patched coat from thrash days; Kaitlin wasn’t really speaking to boys yet. Luckily their coursework required them to talk. For the next three years, the couple would sit next to each other in class, critique each others’ writing and muse about literature. Their relationship remained collegiate until senior year when Shaun asked Kaitlin to go grab a cup of tea with him after class. Little did he know that Kaitlin would be just his cup of tea.

He brought her to Queen Anne’s Tea Cup and bought a pot of one of their exotic selections of aromatic herbs. Kaitlin remembers how he stuck the tea pot holder on his head and tried to make her laugh. They talked for hours. To Shaun—this was a first date. To Kaitlin—this was a chance to have a boy buy her tea. The two continued on little training-wheel dates like this for the next year. They munched on muffins at Macrina’s bakery and satisfied their student listlessness with a little late night nosh from the 5 Spot diner.

It wasn’t until the night before their graduation from SPU, that it dawned on Shaun that what Kaitlin really needed was for him to be a little more direct. He invited her over to watch a movie at his place, put a shy arm around her and told her he liked her. He walked her out to her car and planted an awkward kiss on her mouth. Little did he know that Kaitlin went home wondering what the gesture meant. The next day, she turned the ribbon of her cap not knowing what would come of the warm ghost of the kiss on her lips.

They’d gotten through all their classes, read all the required material and obtained all the necessary credits—but what the pair didn’t understand yet, was that love’s tests are all pop quizzes.

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