Early 2007, I lived in the Netherlands, I received an email from a friend in Chicago and she asked if I would like to have dinner with her sister when I'm in Seattle for a conference at Microsoft. The conference was in March 2007 and it ended on March 15th, and a few hours earlier than planned for me. So, I had to wait and the people at Microsoft got a bit worried and asked me "are you sure you'll be picked up?" when I was still waiting there after an hour and more... after all, all the busses had already left to hotels or airports. About 4:00pm my friend's sister, Kim, showed up and I suggested to have dinner at the Space Needle because Microsoft organized a party there earlier and the place and the food was just great. We parked the car and went up to the restaurant. We had such a great time and I think we saw all landmarks at least 4 times. After dinner we walked around the area of the Space Needle before we headed back to the car... and found a parking ticket of $35 on the windshield! Apparantly we stayed much longer than planned! Next day I flew back to Holland but Kim and I wrote each other emails almost every day. One day I proposed to her and she even said "Yes..." ;) Our 2nd date was November 17th, 2007... when we got married here in Washington! December 2007 we went to Holland to live there until I would retire. Because of some circumstances Kim had to go back to Washington in January 2009 and we decided that I would emigrate to the USA. I received my visa in Febraury 2009 and once again I flew to Seattle and this time to stay. The Space Needle just means more to both of us than before. It's where I met my most beautiful and wonderful wife and lost my heart. Now that we live in Washington again we always try to go back on March 15 and have dinner at the Space Needle to celebrate our anniversary of our first date.