Sometimes finding the love of your life is as simple as stepping away from the computer screen for a bit and enjoying the great outdoors. That’s how David met Serena–on a wildflower hike in the Marin Headlands—a meeting that almost didn’t happen if it weren’t for some “lucky stars” and the motivation to go explore. Thirteen years later, the couple is still going strong. This is their Greenbelt Alliance love story.
It was April 28, 2013. He was David D. Schmidt, Bay Area native and veteran Greenbelt Alliance outings leader since ’92. On this beautiful spring day (naturally), David was co-leading a wildflower hike in the Marin Headlands with Greenbelt Alliance Outings Coordinator and possible Cupid-in-disguise, Ken Lavin. She was Serena Enger, a recent Bay Area transplant by way of Boston and veteran Greenbelt Alliance outings-goer since 2008. So was it love at first sight?
As he puts it, “ When we sat down for lunch, I looked around and saw her, and I wanted to have lunch with her. So I sat down next to her, and we talked for a while. At the end of the hike, I wanted to keep in touch, so we exchanged numbers. I was working six days a week, long hours, and I almost missed the hike because I thought I needed a rest—I almost missed meeting Serena! I thank, as the saying goes, my lucky stars that I went.”
She says, “He came bearing books, and as a librarian and passionate reader, I was pleased. He had such an impressive and poetic knowledge of wildflowers, the history of the bay, sustainable development, and so forth, but he was also a very kind person, and that attracted me to him.”
Their ensuing courtship reads like a Greenbelt Alliance outings calendar. On that first date, they went for a hike in Sonoma’s Jack London State Historic Park. On date two, they explored the Presidio and Golden Gate Park together. Date three took place in Rancho Corral de Tierra, a big swath of land stretching southward from Montara Mountain to Half Moon Bay.
David and Serena were a match made in the greenbelt. They’re both avid readers. They both enjoy history and politics. They like watching foreign films together at the Castro Theater. And they obviously both love Greenbelt Alliance outings.
Six months after meeting, David proposed to Serena atop Mount Tamalpais.
“We hiked along the Matt Davis Trail on Mount Tam that’s above Stinson Beach—it’s a beautiful area with those quintessential rolling, mound-like hills of Marin County with great views of the Pacific and the whole Bolinas Ridge,” Serena recalls. “And David proposed to me on the trail as the sun was setting and we had this tremendous view of the Pacific Ocean behind us.”
To celebrate their love, they go on wildflower hikes in the Marin Headlands every April, where it all started. And their bonding love for nature endures. They spend a lot of time hiking and are currently re-landscaping our home with California indigenous plants and flowers. “It’s restorative, rejuvenating, for us.” David has also just published the book, San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History (with incredible tidbits of history about Greenbelt Alliance, too).
So, this weekend if you find yourself still looking for love in all the wrong places, skip the dating apps—try looking elsewhere, like David and Serena. Maybe in the greenbelt. On one of our upcoming outings, perhaps?
“Greenbelt hikes make you feel good in two ways: First, you’re in a beautiful natural area, breathing deeply, and you always feel relaxed at the end, even if you’re tired. Second, you learn about the great ongoing work of the Greenbelt Alliance to save natural places and foster resilient, vibrant urban places – a positive, hopeful vision we all need! You always meet other people who love nature, and you just might meet someone special!,” said David.
Happy Valentine’s Day from the matchmakers at Greenbelt Alliance!
Originally published on February 13, 2015, by Alex Chen. Updated by Daniela Ades with information from David Schmidt and Serena Enger.
