Monday, August 30, 2010

Our 27th Anniversary

Michael and I have been married for 27 years today!

We've had a great time and it's been an adventure.

We were both living in Michigan, having left and come back though neither of us knew why. Until we met.

We were married 6 months after our first date and left for Colorado within 8 months after we married.  Michael was recruited to be the land manager of the Windstar Foundation. I was the administrative assistant at the Aspen Council for the Arts and did my artwork. Later I worked in the Art Dept at the Aspen Times, which I loved!

We were also property managers for a couple large estates, one of which we lived in. It was a 10,000 sq ft house on the top of Buttermilk Mountain. From our apartment we could see down valley to Mt Sopris, the runs at Snowmass and the Aspen Highlands. It was beautiful.

We met LOTS of interesting and odd people and lots of famous people - Jimmy Buffett, neighbor, Glenn Frey, neighbor, Buckminster Fuller, of course John Denver who Michael worked for, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, neighbors, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, on an on.

And then there were the friends of the owners of the estate we lived in and frequent visitors, Senator Frank Lautenberg, the Glucks (ceo Cesears Wold),  Barbie Benton, neighbor, Mel Simon (developer Mall of America), Leonard and Evelyn Lauder (Estee Lauder), Arthur and Sistie Fischer (one of the developers of Tyson Corners) and Charles Bolla (General Manager of the Beverly Hilton), to name a few.

 Sorry for the name dropping but it taught us not to be intimidated by money or power!

We were in Aspen for 6 years and had a great time. But we longed to be near the water again and in Aspen, even though the sun shone all the time it was still winter 8 months out of the year, 2 months of mud season and 2 glorious months of summer.

We took off in our motor home and traveled through Arizona, NM, Texas, Louisana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and ended up at mile marker 33 in the Florida Keys. We spent the winter there and Michael went to work for Fred Troxel, a local dentist and legend. Fred just happened to be friends with Jimmy Buffett, who has a house in Key West. When he saw Michael at Fred's house he said "don't I know you from somewhere?"

We enjoyed the winter there but knew we weren't going to stay there permanently, a lot like Aspen, one way in, one way out and a great place to visit but......

While we were there we told everyone that would listen that we were looking for a place on the water that was on it's way but hadn't gotten there yet. A retired CIA agent from Duck, NC said we should look at New Bern, NC, "it sounds just like what you're looking for."

We came here, bought a boat that we lived on for 3 years, started Carolina Creations, bought a house in the historic district, 3 years ago built a new house in the historic district.

So here we are twenty years later, still in New Bern and loving it and 27 years later and still loving each other.

Looking forward to the next chapter.

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations and Happy Anniversary! I am sure glad that you both decided to stay and make New Bern your home - your business is a huge asset to the town and I personally feel it a privledge to know you! Keep up the good work and continue to add many more happy years together...
    Wendy

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  2. Great story....congratulations to you both! I'm thinking Jimmy Buffet could play at Union Point Park...think you could line that up?!? ;-) Bradley

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  3. That would be very cool! Saw him on tv last night, he looks pretty good!

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