This May, Julia Lindsey and David Hutton said “I do” under the same trees that shaded their childhood summers.
In August 2021, the supposed strangers matched on a dating app and spent their first date trading dad jokes. But on their second date, conversation turned to the wildfires near Lake Tahoe. “This fire is encroaching on this area that’s really beloved by my family,” Hutton told Lindsey. “Fallen Leaf Lake.”
“What do you mean ‘Fallen Leaf Lake’?” she said.
They discovered that not only had they both spent time at Stanford Sierra Camp as children, but their families had vacationed there during the same week—Week 12—for years. During their “Sierra Camp background check,” they learned of another coincidence: Their mothers, Libby Hutton and Wendy Carson, had both graduated from Stanford in 1973.
Photos: Courtesy Libby Hutton (top); Brooke and Bryn Photography
“I think it was maybe our fourth date that I invited [him] over for dinner,” says Lindsey. “My joke was: Normally, a stranger from the internet I would not invite over for dinner, but I thought, ‘Worst-case scenario, I know how to get in touch with his mom.’ ”
Hutton and Lindsey are now looking forward to their shared future—and to more time with their families at Fallen Leaf Lake.
Kali Shiloh is a staff writer at Stanford. Email her at kshiloh@stanford.edu.
