Max + Annie | Our Love Story

OF ALL THE LOVE STORIES OUT THERE, OURS IS MY FAVORITE

Max Bradley | August 21, 2020

After falling in love at first sight in the same location that Annie’s mother and father met (Newport, Rhode Island), we decided to start our journey together by moving to San Francisco. Moving to San Fran without a job or a place to live is probably one of the biggest hurdles we’ve had to overcome together as a couple—good thing we got this out of the way 2 weeks into our relationship.

It took Max working three jobs—including valet at the Ritz Carlton, selling motorcycles at Scuderia, sailing on the old America’s Cup boat USA 76—until he found his dream job in the aviation industry for a company called BlackBird. Annie kept busy through painting, nannying, and eventually being one of the first employees at an early stage tech startup downtown in the city.

Weekends were spent exploring the Bay Area, road tripping the coast up and down Highway 1, picnicking in Dolores Park, trips up to Napa Valley, skiing in Lake Tahoe, surfing, sailing and kiting frigid waves off Ocean Beach, building lifelong relationships and embracing the once in a lifetime opportunity of living in San Francisco, California.

Between flying to Texas for family visits and southern style weddings, a summer spent sailing and exploring Europe, day trips to Vegas, an adventure to Bali followed by a month in Australia — it’s no wonder three years felt like three weeks of living and breathing in San Francisco. Then, March of 2020 hit and the world was entering a pandemic. We packed our bags, downsized all the ‘things’ we had accumulated over the last few years and decided to buy a converted school bus to call home for the foreseeable future.

We loaded up ‘Bambi The Bus’ and embarked on our new phase of life together on a cross-country road trip to Max’s hometown in Michigan. We stopped in Reno for a beer and some lunch with Benny B. We climbed massive mountains to get to Park City, Utah and then continued on to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we spent a couple of days on the Snake River. After more driving, we made it to Mount Rushmore at sunrise. We pulled up to the national monument and there was not a single car in sight. We parked the bus and walked up to the viewing area, with nothing and nobody else in sight except for the distant sounds of chirping birds. After a brief photo shoot with some of America’s past presidents, we officially checked off that box. On our way out, we finally spotted one solo tourist walking in as we were walking out, and yes, she had a selfie stick in hand ready for some serious action.

The trip continued east and we made it to Michigan just in time to surprise Max’s mother for her 50th birthday. We spent the next couple of months in Grand Haven, Michigan finalizing our skoolie conversions and enjoying what the summer and fall months had to offer in the lovely land of the midwest.

Now that you’re all caught up on our love story from the early days, what do you think should be next on the list?

Oh, and below is the very first photo we ever took together :)