Colorado Springs
1985 - January 1988
Edelweiss and Escargot
Noah and I visited Omi, Ursula, Ken, and Lawrence in Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving, 1985. We fell in love with the beauty of the area. In March, 1986, we took a giant leap of faith, quit our jobs, and left the rat race of California behind. We found an apartment about a mile from their E. Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard home.
One of our favorite places to go for dinner was The Edelweiss Restaurant, not only for the delicious German food, but for the ambiance. Musicians in lederhosen sang and played accordions and guitars, so fun! They took requests and could sing most anything, but that’s another story for another time. Any of you who have cruised with me know I LOVE escargot, so when I saw it on the menu, I jumped at the chance to order it…. When it arrived, Omi had a fit. No one told me she was allergic to garlic! I had to go sit at an empty table by myself to eat my escargot! Memories….
~ Gay
Colorado Springs 1988
The “Omi Tree”
Once upon a time, in early 1988, Noah and I set out on the unbelievable journey of building our beautiful home in Hanover, with the help of our wonderful family and friends. Our land was way out on the prairie east of Colorado Springs, where Ursula, Ken, Lawrence, and Omi lived at the time. The area was only grasslands, not a tree in sight for miles. As luck would have it, there was a tree in Ursula’s side yard that Omi wanted taken down, I think for room for a garden or flowers. We dug it up and transplanted it to our barren prairie land, where, with a lot of TLC, it thrived and lived happily ever after, for the 18 years we lived there! Well, except for one little mishap… we rednecks were shooting one day, and one of Noah’s firefighter friends shot one of the branches off. ): We had 35 acres, and he had to hit our one and only tree. I don’t know if the Omi tree still stands, but it was so special to us!
P.S. Omi was not crazy about our property while we built the house, as evidenced in the pictures. It was too windy (all the time!) and she could never get bundled up enough to stay warm. She did, however, enjoy our friends, one being Eric Knight. The vodka and cranberry helped a little. 😊
~ Gay
