John and Carly first met in Hyannis Port, Cape Cod in the summer of 2011. John, a rising junior at Wake Forest (Go Deacs!), was staying with Jack Duane during their summer internships. Carly, 16, was teaching sailing, studying for SATs, and working on her “game” in all categories: capture the flag, sharks and minnows, and of course, flirting.

With the Duane House a few blocks down the road, Carly and her friends Summer and Sarah invented all sorts of excuses to “casually walk by” the Duane household: jumping off the West Beach Club raft, picking up ice cream cookie sandwiches called “Beachwiches”, and organizing 30 person night runs, all of which happened to require a walk by the Duanes. John, on to them, invented creative excuses to keep them at bay, but they did wrangle him into a night sail or two.

Needless to say, our love story does not start here. 

Fast forward a decade to 2020 and Carly was home with her parents for the holidays facing another San Francisco Covid lockdown when Ian invited her on an Aspen Ski Trip to kickoff the new year. Carly, desperate to get out of the house and onto the slopes, jumped at the opportunity. “What girls are going?” 

“Well,” Ian responded, “There aren’t any girls going. But you kind of know John Melen.”

After failing to persuade any of her girl friends to join an all boys ski trip in the middle of Covid, Carly got on the plane to Aspen. From the moment she arrived to the final Highlands Bowl Hike, she and John were talking non stop. 

Carly found herself asking John “Why don’t we hang out more in SF?” (Meaning: I have a crush on you, Let’s hang out more). 

And John found himself asking Carly, “How tall are you?” (Meaning: I have a crush on you. But I am also trying to decide if you are too short for me).*

*To this day, the two are split on what Carly’s answer was to the height question. John claims Carly alleged she was taller than 5’4 3/4”. Carly chalks this misremembering up to her “tall girl energy.”

For their first “date,” John asked Carly to meet him in Utah the following weekend. When John sliced open his calf skiing, literally cutting the trip short, the two returned to San Francisco to discover they both had Covid. Nothing like quarantining together to figure out how much you like someone! Armed with covid immunity, the two jumped into life together: road tripping to meet Shay for a BBQ in Malibu, countless breakfast burritos in Tahoe, and an ongoing ski trip culminating back in Aspen to meet Carly’s parents.

Three years, one amazing dog, and many adventures later, John got down on one knee back where it all started at the top of Highlands Bowl. Carly tackled him and the rest is history!