Forty-two year old Alexa Swanson had been watching The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel since it first premiered 12 years ago. At that time, she had been stuck in an exhausting, loveless marriage and watching the action on the Bering Sea was a weekly escape for her. She and her (then) young son, Austin, would watch together while her husband sat and drank in the garage while he tinkered with his motorcycle.

As those seven years passed, Alexa's life near Portland, Oregon changed dramatically. She moved out of the house and into a small apartment, now only having her son half the time. She got a new job and started to have to manage a household by herself, something she had zero experience with. She slowly became an independent person as she gained years' worth of life skills over a matter of months.

Alex continued to watch her favorite show every Tuesday night. She fell in love with the Fishing Vessel Northwestern; the 125-foot boat was beautiful with its clean white paint and vibrant blue lines. The seal of the Northwestern was a cool design made of two shades of blue and three peaks like a crown which represented the three owners of the boat: Sig, Norman and Edgar Hansen. One summer, about 3 years into the show, Alex got their seal tattooed onto her upper arm along with a couple of other small symbols. It was a pretty symbol so why not?

Three years before present day, Alexa wrote a letter to one of the owners of the F/V Northwestern. She mailed it to the fisherman in care of the processor they would offload their crab to in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. "Dear Edgar, I'm sure you guys get hundreds if not thousands of fan letters each year and it probably gets kind of overwhelming. But if you actually do get the chance to see this, I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your life with the viewers. I have learned a lot from the show, not only the technical stuff but about what you guys go through and what you sacrifice. Taking you to lunch one day is on my bucket list – I have so many questions for you! Anyway, thanks for reading. Stay safe and good fishing! Sincerely, Alex Swanson."

She wrote a similar letter to him the following year and the year after that. This year, she wrote one more. "Dear Edgar, it's time for me to write my annual letter to you =) I've still got you mentally penciled in to my calendar for lunch and an inquisition some time. But I know you probably get requests like this all the time. I just hope to one day get to set foot on the beautiful F/V Northwestern for a quick tour. I finally got to see her in person this summer in Ballard– she's even more stunning in person! Hope you have a safe, lucrative season. Good fishing! Sincerely, Alex Swanson."

Figuring she had nothing to lose, she always included her mailing address, email address, phone number and Facebook name. She knew he'd likely never respond and that was okay... but the possibility that he could respond was fun to think about.

Forty-seven year old Edgar Hansen and the rest of the Northwestern crew had received thousands of pieces of fan mail over the years. Fandom was still strong now but the volume of mail had dropped off quite a bit. He actually had seen Alex's letters from the past two years but they had gotten recycled just like 99.9% of the other fan mail he'd taken home to look at.

This past year had been rough for Edgar. He had been having legal trouble and marital issues and work had been the only thing that had felt "normal" to him. When he got home from opilio season in late February, life hit him hard. He was disappointed in himself, he felt lonely even when he was around his friends and family and he felt depressed.

One sleepless night in early April, Edgar dug his bag of the past season's fan letters out of the closet and opened it up. There had been about 120 letters addressed to him so he started opening and reading them. Some people had sent fan art, some people had sent marriage or other romantic proposals and some of the letters were downright weird and disturbing. Some people had sent hate mail and some of the letters were like the ones from Alex... Short but sweet letters of thanks and fandom.

Bored out of his mind and totally unable to sleep, Edgar turned on his laptop. Recognizing Alex's letter as that of someone who'd written before, he decided to look her up on Facebook. A picture she'd taken of his family's boat was her cover photo so he was sure he'd found the right person. Oh, Alex is a female. The letters are way less creepy now, he thought.

Edgar spent over an hour scrolling through her pictures and her posts. She had a son and a job and a new car so she was obviously at least semi-normal. He scrolled back far enough to see the tattoo she had of his family's crest and he chuckled to himself. That's a hard-core fan... but that looks pretty cool actually. He saw that she'd met a couple of the other guys from the show but she wasn't like some of the fans that would practically stalk the guys everywhere they went.

"What the hell?" he said to himself. He composed, recomposed and recomposed again an email to Alex. He finally settle on a simple and to the point: "Hey Alex. Thanks for your letters over the past few years; I have gotten them and appreciate your support. I'm gonna drop something in the mail for you tomorrow to show my thanks. Take care, Edgar Hansen."

When Alex got home from dropping her son off at his father's house the next morning, she checked her email and saw the message. "There is no way this is actually from Edgar!" she grinned to herself. "But could it be?!"

The more she read and re-read the email, the more sure she became that it was not from Edgar himself. It felt too canned, too generic. It was still exciting but the giddiness wore off as the day passed.

*** Wed 4/4 ***

"What are you doing this weekend?" her coworker asked later that week.

"I was thinking about going up to Seattle on Saturday."

"Just for the day again?"

"Yeah. The Northwestern is in Ballard for some work so I thought I'd go up and see if I can get any closer than I did last year. You know, and get some lunch and do some other stuff too. We'll see if the weather holds up."

When Alex got home from work that afternoon, she checked her mail. Her gift from Edgar, or more likely his representative, had arrived. She couldn't wait to get inside and see what it was. She tore open the shipping bag and inside were an autographed copy of the latest season of The Deadliest Catch DVDs and a Northwestern sweatshirt. "Oh my god, I love them!" she squealed to herself. She immediately pulled on the sweatshirt and took a selfie while holding the DVD set up in front of the camera. She posted it on Facebook then went on to send it to "Edgar" as well. "Dear Edgar," she typed into a reply to his email. "I got your package today; thank you so much! What a great surprise to come home to after work. Just a friendly reminder that you have a free lunch coming to you if you ever want to take me up on it! =) Have a great weekend! Sincerely, Alex."

*** Sun 4/8 ***

It was Sunday before Edgar checked his email again. Computer stuff wasn't a huge priority to him. But once he opened Alex's email message, he smiled at her picture. Awesome. He knew that he had made her day and could have just left it at that, but instead he pulled up her Facebook page to see what she'd been up to over the past week.

Alex had obviously had a long week at work... She and her son had cooked a new recipe for dinner one night... She posted the picture of her with the stuff I sent her... and she was in Seattle yesterday. Alex had, once again, made her way to where the Northwestern was tied up and taken a few pictures. "She really loves that boat," he chuckled to himself.

After wasting a goodly amount of time looking through Alex's social media pages, he went back to his email program. "Hey Alex," he typed. "Glad you liked what I sent you. The sweatshirt looks great on you! I may have to take you up on that lunch sometime. Talk to you later, Edgar."

*** Mon 4/9 ***

When Alex reluctantly dragged herself in to work Monday morning, she opened all of her computer programs while mentally preparing to clock in. She opened her email and waded through the dozen junk messages and meeting invites until she got to the one from "Edgar." "You may take me up on that, huh?" she whispered to herself. "Sure."

Alex thought about the email over the next couple of days. Even though she was still 90-ish percent sure that it was not really from Edgar, she decided Tuesday night to reply to him once again; she had nothing to lose. "Hey Edgar, I will be up in Seattle for the day on Saturday the 21st of this month if you're around. I'd love the opportunity to at least meet you (and visit the boat if possible). But if visiting the boat is a no-go, I'd still like just to meet you and have a drink or cup of coffee with you. Hope you have a great week, Alex."

*** Saturday 4/14 ***

The Saturday a week before she would be in Seattle, Edgar decided that he would take her up on her offer for lunch. Why not? He'd determined, through stalking her on social media and analyzing her email messages, that she was a normal person and probably wouldn't try to kidnap, poison or murder him. He too was just a normal person who could use an afternoon to escape the usual day-to-day stresses of life and enjoy a meal and conversation with another normal, like-minded person.

He located Alex's last hand-written letter and typed her number into his cell phone. "Hey Alex, it's Edgar," he texted. "Lunch sounds great on the 21st. We'll make a plan before then." She was grocery shopping with her son when the notification came in to her phone.

"Oh my god!"

"What is it?" her now 16-year-old son asked.

"Read it!" She held up her phone and showed him.

"That's so cool!" he grinned. He too loved the show and the guys on the Northwestern. "Can you get an autograph or something for me while you're there?"

"Absolutely buddy!"

Alex waited until they got home and had put the groceries away before she sat down to reply to the text. "Not to be skeptical that this is really Edgar," she began. "But I am skeptical *smiley face*" He got the text and laughed. Pushing record on his cell phone, he took a quick video of himself to send her. "Hey Alex," he smiled. "It's really me. Let's make a plan for the 21st. Talk to you soon."

She was absolutely giddy when she got the video. She showed it to her son, Austin, and he too thought it was awesome. Taking a few minutes to compose herself, she replied: "So I was wrong lol – there IS a first time for everything ;) Thank you for that and I look forward to meeting you!"

Alex waited a couple of days to contact him again; she didn't want to be annoying or seem too eager. By the time Wednesday rolled around and the weekend drew closer, she was dying to know what the plan was. She got home from work that evening and was making dinner for Austin when her phone rang.

"It's him!" she grinned at her son.

"You should probably answer then," he chuckled.

"Right! This is Alex..."

"Hey Alex, it's Edgar."

"Hey Edgar! How are you?" Chill. Calm down. Don't sound so excited.

"Good, how are you?"

"Doing great!"

"Hey so let's figure out what we're doing this weekend."

"Okay. You're the one that knows the area. Where do you want to have lunch or coffee or whatever?"

"There's a place in Ballard called Salmon Bay Café. It's near the intersection of Shilshole and 20th right on the waterfront... great burgers and fish & chips. What time do you think you'll be in town?"

"I usually roll into Seattle around 11 or 11:30. I could just meet you there at noon?"

"Yeah. Sounds good. Give me a call if anything changes in the meantime."

"Will do. See you soon, Edgar."

"Bye Alex."

Alex was absolutely over the moon for the rest of the week. Despite having a couple of crappy days at work, she was in a fantastic mood every day. She had told her best friend at work about her plans for the weekend; she was having a hard time focusing on the job at hand.

"Now you can say that you get to meet him tomorrow!"

"I know! How cool is that?!"

"Pretty cool!"

The minutes ticked by at a snail's pace Friday afternoon. The clock finally struck 5pm and she hurried home. Tomorrow was an amazing opportunity and Alex wanted to take advantage of every second she would get with Edgar. She had a list of questions for him, she charged the battery for her camera, made sure she had a full gas tank and the fluids in her car were topped off. She was trying to pick what she was going to wear in the morning when her phone rang. It's Edgar!

"Hey Edgar!"

"Hey Alex! Just making sure we're still on for tomorrow at noon?"

"Salmon Bay Café, I'll be there!"

"Perfect. Gimme a call if you get up here and have a hard time finding parking. I know of some extra parking nearby."

"Awesome, thanks! Oh hey... is it supposed to rain up there tomorrow? I guess I could check myself," she chuckled.

"No need. It's supposed to be about 60 and partly sunny."

"Sounds perfect to me!"

"I like that kind of weather too."

"Nice. Well, I will see you tomorrow at noon!"

"Looking forward to it! Bye Alex."

"Bye Edgar."

*** Saturday 4/21 ***

Alex tossed and turned most of the night, too excited to sleep well. She got up at 7am and hopped into the shower to shave her legs and scrub her face. Using her favorite conditioner, she made sure her hair looked and smelled good. She knew that Edgar was married and that she was not going up there as a woman meeting a man for a lunch date but as a fan meeting a "celebrity." But there is something about looking and feeling your best that puts a woman in a good mood... not that she wasn't already ecstatic!

She slipped into her best fitting jeans and a nice light-weight sweater before pulling on and tying her sneakers. If all went well, she hoped to be setting foot on the Northwestern before the day was done. She wanted to be comfortable in case there was any walking or climbing involved.

Sliding into the driver's seat of her two-year-old blue Hyundai Accent, which donned a Northwestern bumper sticker, she plugged in her iPod, picked a playlist and headed east toward Interstate 5 northbound.