Mark & Vicki come from Rugby in the center of England, not far from Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick. The biggest, closest city would be Birmingham. We have been married since 1993, but we have been together since high school (1985), meeting in the same village, Long Itchington, where we lived and grew up. Now we have an 11-year-old son Alex.
Mark served on board nuclear submarines in the British Royal Navy, becoming an electrical and mechanical marine engineer, then went into the electrical trade on leaving, with jobs in contracting, wholesale and manufacturing. Now Mark is a "Jack-of-all-trades" in the continous work of the B&B and the renovations of the 120+ year-old house.
Vicki went to catering college, then from there got a job at the prestigious Regent Hotel in Royal Leamington Spa gaining experience across the board in the hotel industry. From there she went to work in a restaurant in the same town before becoming Manager of Woodwards' two department store restaurants. Now Vicki puts all her experience to good use in the B&B and is also the Pre K-4 Assistant Teacher at Alex's school.
Alex, well he is now 11 going on 21 and boy can he tell you some stories! He goes to St Barnabas Episcopal School (http://sbesyes.org/Default.aspx) here in Deland, and enjoys it immensely. He is seriously learning to play golf and enjoys playing tennis. He swims like a fish and loves to go fishing (that's my boy) and we all go to watch Stetson University play baseball.
We have been here nearly six years now, where has the time gone?
We have survived all the Florida weather you could think of and enjoyed Thanksgiving, Christmas and July 4th in a new country! America certainly is the land of opportunity and we are now living the "American Dream".
Through the past 6 years we have seen happy times and not so happy times, sometimes being 4000 miles away from family can be a bit tough to say the least. But we are building a new life and a new home and as we do, we are meeting so many people who are kind and thoughtful and who only have nice things to say. As time goes by every day becomes that much easier.
Casey & Kathe, Marjorie, Harold & Betty, Werner & Elke, Birgitt & Terry, Lynn, Kim & Kathleen, Robert, Jane, Jacob & Abigail, Leslie, Paul, Todd & Callum, Bike Week Gang, ALL our International skydivers, we could go right through our guest book (which is filling up rapidly), the list goes on and on...without these people we would not be here today.
A BIG Thank You to ALL who have visited us and stayed with us. You have helped make our transition a whole lot easier. Thank you to those who have simply kept in touch, either by telephone or email, you know who you are. It means a lot to know we are not out of sight out of mind!
Lastly but certainly not least a HUGE thank you to ALL our friends here in Deland especially, Patty & Sam, Tommy & Sammy, Venessa & Doug, Justyn & Korrina, Sharon & Hoyle, Robert & JH, without you guys life would be very lonely.
Friends are the family we choose!
THANK YOU so much!
Mark, Vicki & Alex
Call: 1-866-403-8009
or 1-386-736-4244 or 1-386-490-6658
