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In 1998 we were living in Zephyrhills, Florida. Tara was working as a nurse at the East Pasco Hospital. Once she finished her contract, unfortunately, we went back to Canada. We drove first to La Prairie, Quebec. We stopped at a few places along the way, we camped in Georgia. We also visited Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and we slept in Richmond, Virginia. We also went to the restaurant in Newark on Ferry Street. After our visit in Quebec, we went to visit my parents in the old country, Portugal. This was the first time that my parents were going to meet my young daughter Isabelle. At that time she was about ten months old and she could not walk yet.

This was obviously our first trip as a complete family. Dad liked to bring Nadia with him in the fieldd or at the beach. My dad andI, we had a tradition to go eat a Caldeirada at Lila in Praia de Mira, fresh fish stew. My dad ordered it and then later we will comeback when it was ready. It was also very good. Sometimes he put some eels in it. That was by far the best caldeirada on the beach. Overall we spent a lot of time in Mira. He also liked to bring Nadia with him at the church and other places.

Dad also brought Nadia to the vineyard to help him pick potatoes. My mum and dad grew all kinds of veggies and fruits. A lot of times we had fresh produces from the garden. The land behind our house was quite big. Sometimes there will be bird nests in the vineyards and dad will call us to look at them and of course Nadia liked it.

My parents loved Isabelle and Nadia. They loved to show them the animals. he girls loved all the animals that my parents had especially chickens. Most of the time my parents had chickens, pigs and sometimes rabbits. One year my parents did not have rabbits so my uncle Mario Pessoa showed them some that they had and the girls were thrilled.

My mum was often sick, but having us around made her feel so much better. Like always we were fortunate to meet some members of our family. I always loved to visit Tio Aleixo and his wife. We had a great time. Like always we had a hard time saying goodbye there was always a lot of tears shed.