Our Story

The Beginning

Picture it: A grimy, falling apart old building in Prospect Park. Most people assume the Tennis House is abandoned, but in reality, it houses the integral and hardworking (and also grimy and falling apart) members of the Landscape Management Office. On the first day of June in 2016, Marissa walked into the attic room of this decrepit "building" for her first day at Prospect Park. A tall, bearded man stood up out of the gloom upon her entrance and said, "Hi, I'm Dave." and the magic began.

As the summer progressed, Marissa and David ate lunch together every day and impressed each other with their pie crusts. Their friendship grew from these lunchtime conversations. On the few occasions their crews worked together, they seemed to always be side by side. Later in the summer, the grimy Prospect Park crew started going out after work. Marissa and David grew closer over beers at The Dram Shop during these Thursday happy hours. 

Karen LeRiche, their fellow Prospect Park employee, played matchmaker in more ways than one. First, she noticed the chemistry between Marissa and David, and happily encouraged the budding relationship. Second, Marissa saw Karen's birthday as an opportunity to spend more time with David.  She asked for his baking help to make cookies because she thought she had run out of brown sugar. David enthusiastically offered the brown sugar he claimed he had at home. However, David knew he was out of brown sugar and picked some up after work.  Before leaving his apartment, he opened the box to remove a bit, so it didn't look new when he arrived at the baking party.  While baking, Marissa discovered she still had brown sugar and hoped David didn't notice the box. The cookies were delicious and neither knew of the other's subterfuge for quite some time.

As the end of the summer loomed near and Marissa was poised to move to Syracuse, both were unsure where the relationship would go. However, after helping Marissa move, David knew he would be making the journey to the Salt City on a regular basis. Marissa understood someone who uses their vacation days to help you move across the state is someone special and booked a bus ticket back to Brooklyn for the next weekend. Thus began their long-distance relationship and way too much time spent on a Greyhound bus. 

The long-distance period of their relationship was thankfully short-lived.  One year after Marissa first pulled David out of the mud, they moved into their apartment in Syracuse together.

5 years pass...

The Engagement

David and Marissa planned a trip to Ireland, and both were excited to visit Killarney National Park (KNP). Unbeknownst to Marissa, David was excited for added reasons...

On their first full day in Ireland, they went on a bike ride through KNP. Before leaving, David had mentioned a bike outfitter with a self-guided tour on their website. Marissa was confused at how insistent he was they do the tour, but she gladly went along and opened it on her phone. The tour gave them directions to a stop, upon arrival they would learn about the site, and take a photo! They visited an abandoned abbey, weaved through an old growth oak forest, and looked out across the lakes from historic bridges. At Brickeen Bridge Marissa fleetingly thought David was about to propose, but the moment passed, and she was distracted by a pine marten thinking, "This day can't get any better!" David was thinking "This would be a lovely place to propose!" but then Marissa got distracted by a pine marten and he decided to stick to his plan.

They neared the end of the tour and David suggested they stop to rest at Dundag Beach. Marissa assumed he was hungry. David was hungry, but had more important matters to address first than a snack. Marissa went to take the stop's photo, when David suggested they walk closer to the water first. Oblivious to his intentions, she started walking behind him and hit the "Take Photo" button. Instead of opening her camera like on previous stops, this screen popped up:

Marissa gasped, confused, excited, surprised, all emotions. David turned around, realizing she had jumped the gun and said, "I have something to ask you." He proposed and pulled a tree bark patterned silicone ring from his wallet to make it official! Marissa said yes, then asked "KillarneyBicycleTours.com is not run by a bike shop in Killarney, is it?" David responded, "the domain for killarneybicycletours.com is owned by me." David had created the whole website and tour as a magical, creative, and fitting way to propose.

For everyone that made it all the way to the end of this very long Our Story section, we are excited to celebrate with you in September!