Where we live in South Florida

http://www.gmcvb.com/Index.asp

Our Home Address:

1520 Agua Ave.  Coral Gables, FL  33156

Home:  305-740-6467

Our mailing address remains:

Mark & Carmen Tomazin

1317 S.W. 19th St.  Miami, FL  33145

See the red star on the Miami map?  That's where our home is located.  In the city of Coral Gables, east of the Town of Pinecrest.

Little trivia about Miami, Florida:

Miami has a sub-tropical climate, with temperatures in the Summer averaging: 80's to 90's and in the winter: 50's and 70's.

There is so much we can tell you about Miami...  But that in itself would take up another webpage...  If you'd like to learn more about the area, let us know!  Or you can browse the following websites: http://www.ci.miami.fl.us -  http://www.miami.gov

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald 

www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/parks/Parks/matheson_marina.htm

Florida Fauna

Here are many of the birds that we have in South Florida.  Since we live so close to the water, we are very lucky to have many of them visit or backyard.  We also have all kinds of critters!  Like Raccoons, Land Crabs, you name it!

Here is a photo of a little crab that came to visit, and of a raccoon we spotted at Matheson Hammock, just like the ones that haunt our garbage cans every night....  

Herbie, our pet hippo!

Our backyard is also home to our little pet hippo,  Herbie!

We adopted Herbie a while back and he's been the most fun pet we've ever had!

Some of you may already know about him, but for those who have not heard the real story about him, click here and it will take you to it.

The story on Herbie the hippo:

December 16th, 2003

Our third grandchild was born.  Our daughter Kathy's first born.  Kristen Isabella was born at 5:43 pm, weighting 9 lbs, 4 oz & 21-1/2 inches long!

Nochebuena / Christmas Eve

Here's Mark with our friend Julio, preparing to roast a whole pig in the "Chinese Box".  This is a Cuban American tradition here in South Florida, especially on Christmas Eve.  We marinade the pig a day before, with lots of garlic, onions, herbs (like oregano, thyme, etc..) and on Christmas Eve we start cooking it early, since it takes about 4-5 hours to cook.  The meat is so soft, it falls off the bones...  and the skin is all crispy, like a potato chip, with not much fat.  Just delicious!  We accompany the pork with the usual traditional side dishes of: Black Beans & Rice, Yucca with Garlic Sauce, Fried Plantains, Mixed Salad and other dishes.  For dessert we have "Turrones" nougat candy and Buņuelos made by Mami, with syrup. http://www.lacajachina.com/

Yummy!

Mark smoking a Cuban Cigar on Christmas Day

Carmen at home during the holidays

On January 2nd, 2004

Our friends Ingrid and Tom Leiner, from Connecticut, came over and stayed with us at our house in Miami with their friends Ray & Susan.

Here they are, at Matheson Hammocks Park, a couple of miles from our home.http://www.mathesonhammock.com/

We took them sightseeing around the Miami & Miami Beach and had a very nice time with them.

February, 2004

This is where we lived throughout the year in Memphis.  The Fieldstone Apts. on the south-eastern suburbs of Memphis, bordering the exclusive Germantown area. 

http://www.memphis.com/

March, 2004

In late March, Mark's parents; Len and Ann and Mark's sister Donna, came by to visit us in Memphis.  Here we are having breakfast in our apartment, before heading out to Tunica, Mississippi, for the weekend.

http://www.tunica-ms.com/casinos.htm

Tunica, MS is only an hour's drive from Memphis.  There's lots of gambling casinos there..  Mark and I stayed at the Sam's Town Casino Hotel and his parents stayed in their motor home, at the parking lot. 

As usual.... We were not too lucky, but then... We can't complain, we can always say that we are: "Lucky in Love" and that's what matters, huh?  Hee, hee... 

Easter Weekend

April, 2004

We went to visit Mark's parents in sister in Nashville, Tennesse.  Nashville is located in the center of the State of TN.  It's about 3 1/2 hour's drive from Memphis, which is located in the south-western border of the State, bordering Mississippi to the South and Arkansas to the West.

Here we are at Donna's house.  Ann cooked up a storm and all we did was eat and eat...

April 2004

Mark and I at having lunch at the Grand Old Opry hotel in Nashville, TN.

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylordopryland/index.cfm

http://www.nashville.com/attractions.html

April 25th, 2004

Our newest member of the family:  Benjamin Ian  was born to our son Paul and his wife Jenny, in Grand Junction, Colorado.  Ben is their third child, brother to Forrest and Amber, who are thrilled with him.

Here is Ben, about a week later, when Abuela Carmen came by to spend 3 weeks with them.

April 30th, 2004

Here's Ben with is siblings Forrest and Amber and mom Jenny.

While Abuela Carmen was visiting, Mark came by Grand Junction for a long weekend, to meet little Ben.

We went on a rafting trip down the Colorado River in Utah, just a little north of the Moab Canyonlands.  It was wonderful!   We all had a blast!  http://www.moab.com/

Here in the forefront is our son Paul and in the background, Mark is holding Amber and Forrest.

We had a party at home to celebrate a few birthdays in the family.  Carmen's dad, Rolando, brother in law, Tom & our nephew Giovanny.

Here is Carmen with her friend Hortensia.

We took a day trip to the Florida Keys, only a couple of hours away from us.

http://www.floridakeys.com/

Here is Mark in his "toy/antique" car.  I call it the "Money Pit"!  Remember the movie with Tom Hanks? This time instead of a house, it's a car...  But, every boy needs his toys, huh?

We had a party at the apartment in Memphis and invited some of the people from International Paper.  We had close to thirty people show up. 

As you can see, we all had a pretty good time...

We went to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Chattanooga is located in the south-eastern part of TN.  About 6 hours drive from Memphis.  There's lots to see and do there, a very charming border town with Georgia.  While we were there, we visited Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls, The Incline Railroad, Rock City Gardens & downtown Chattanooga, where we dined at the Rock City Brewery/Grill.   http://www.chattanoogafun.com/

For those of you who like nostalgia... Chattanooga used to have a big Train Depot/Station, connecting the southern cities, to the northeast/Pennsylvania.  The song "Chattanooga Choo choo" was made famous by the Glenn Miller band in the 1940's about the train station, which bears the name. 

While in Chattanooga, we stayed at a very nice B&B.  The Mayor's Mansion Inn.  We recommend it highly to anyone.  It's a beautiful mansion and they pamper you to no end!  The food is great, too! We had dinner there the night we arrived and breakfast every morning..  Yummy!

 http://www.mayorsmansioninn.com/

August, 2004

On our return from Chattanooga, we took a detour and went to Lynchburg, Tennessee, the little town where they brew the famous Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

We took the tour of the distillery, which was very interesting..  Too bad it was Sunday and there were no tastings because of the Sunday liquor laws.

http://www.jackdaniels.com/

We spent a weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  The town of Hot Springs is about 30 minutes south of Little Rock, AR and about 3 1/2 hours south-west of Memphis. 

While visiting, we stayed at a very nice B&B and toured the downtown area, Hot Springs is known for it's spas.  We visited a couple of them and had a couple's massage! Humm... Very nice! http://www.springstreetinn.net/

http://www.hotsprings.org/things_to_do/historic_

hotsprings/hs_national_park.asp

Here we were having a beer at the "Hot Springs Brau Haus", a German brewery/restaurant in town.

We came home to Miami and were here when Charles, Frances & Ivan were a threat to South Florida.  Luckily we missed them here in Miami!  Here is a photo of our Miami house boarded up. 

If you'd like to learn more about Hurricanes, how they form, etc... Here's the website:  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

After the storms, come the calm..  We had some beautiful, sunny days before returning to work in Memphis.  Here we are on our tandem bike, by the Coconut Grove Marina.  We rode from our house to Sunset and had breakfast at the Sunset Tavern.  From there, we kept going and went all the way to the Grove, which is about 10 miles way.  We stopped at Monty Trainers and had a nice, cool "Pain Killer" before heading back home.

http://www.coconutgrove.com/

Our friend Ingrid and her mom, Mary, came to visit us in Memphis.  We took them sightseeing around the city.  Here we are in downtown Memphis' world renown Beale Street, where the "Blues" were born..

http://www.memphisguide.com/directory/dir00168.htm

October, 2004

Here is our little Kristen, getting ready for Halloween!

Li'l Ben among the Autumn leaves.

Isn't he adorable?

We drove out to Gatlinburg, TN for the weekend.  Gatlinburg is about 7 hours south-east of Memphis, by the Smoky Mountains.  It's a real pretty town!  We stayed at a Chalet in the mountains that was real hard to find late at night.. But very well worth it.  So romantic! 

We did a lot of sightseeing that weekend.  We walked around the downtown area a few times, took the gondola rides and also the Ober Gatlinburg tramway to the Ski Resort atop the mountain.  We went up the Space Needle and took a tour of Cades Cove Nature Trail by car.  http://www.gatlinburg.com/

That weekend they also had an Arts and Crafts Fair at the Convention Center and there was Eddy Hoots from the Bear's Den with his carved bears.  We fell in love with the whimsical creatures and ended up buying "Yogi".  http://www.bearsdenn.com

While in Gatlinburg, we also spent an afternoon in the little town of Pigeon Forge, which is just a few miles away, to visit the Old Mill, where we bought all kinds of flours!  http://www.old-mill.com/

We spent a weekend in Natchez, Mississippi.  Natchez is a very old and charming little town, about 5 1/2 hours south of Memphis.

Natchez is known for the many "Antebellum" homes dating from the Pre-Civil War era.  The first night, we stayed at the Dunleith Mansion B&B and had dinner at their Castle Restaurant the night we arrived.  http://www.dunleithplantation.com/

There's not a lot to see in Natchez besides touring the beautiful Mansions/Plantation homes.  http://www.natchez.ms.us/

They have a charming downtown area, which is nice to walk around, or to take a carriage ride.

The second evening, we stayed at the Natchez Historic Inn http://www.natchezhistoricinn.com/

Here is the Isle of Capri Casino. A floating River Boat.

We had a dinner at the apartment in Memphis, with Mark's friends from International Paper.  From Left to Right:  Mark, Carmen, Hugo, Alejandra & Elaine.  Elaine's husband, Chris, took the photo.

Liana and her husband, Clark, invited us to their house in Memphis, to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We had a very lovely time!  Left to right:  Liana, her father, Mary a friend of theirs, Carmen, a friend/co-worker at International Paper & Clark

On the road from Memphis, to Miami!  Our trusty little Volvo made had a little incident right after we drove into Florida.  We called Geico and they sent the tow truck, that towed us to Taylor Volvo in Gainesville, with the U-Haul trailer and all...

When we arrived at Taylor Volvo, they spent over an hour looking at it and found it was the alternator.  They were so nice!  Didn't want to charge us a penny for all their work.  They got it working and we were able to get all the way home without a problem.  Thanks guys! http://www.taylorvolvo.com/location/ocala-volvo/index.jsp

We had a little dinner party to celebrate Kristen's first Birthday. 

Here she is with her dad, our daughter Kathy, Carmen's mom and friend, Daisy.

Forrest and Amber playing in the snow outside their home in Colorado after a good snowfall! 

Here they just finished making a snowoman.  Notice that Amber placed her pink scarf around her.. Ha, ha!!!

Here is to wishing you all a very joyeous holiday season! 

May all your wishes come through during the coming New Year!