In the summer of 2013, Andrew McGowan and Shallen Yu had a chance encounter while working seasonal jobs in Yellowstone National Park. Andrew, an American, was immediately struck when he first saw Shallen, a Taiwanese student: “I’m going to marry that girl,” he thought. Their connection began over ice cream at a small rustic shop near Old Faithful, where they shared flavors like Rocky Road and talked easily. “More bonding than flirting,” Shallen later recalled. From there, their first date stretched into a full evening—including a drive to Artist Point, a family cookout where Shallen met Andrew’s parents, and stargazing late into the night. Despite living thousands of miles apart, their relationship grew. Andrew worked two jobs to afford a flight to Taiwan, and by the next summer, he proposed. When Shallen’s family objected to the idea of her moving abroad, the couple decided to elope. “We didn’t get my family’s approval… so we just eloped,” Shallen said. Though it wasn’t easy, Andrew never doubted their connection: “If I could go back, I would do it 100 times over… even with the hard things.” Now married with children, they often think back to that summer day in Yellowstone. Something as simple as an ice cream date became a defining moment in both of their lives. “When we eat ice cream, we definitely think about it,” Andrew said, still in awe of how love found them in one of the most unexpected ways. From: https://www.cnn.com/travel/yellowstone-ice-cream-date-chance-encounters
Canyon Village, WY