Grandpa Vicente Giordani

Grandpa Vicente with mo and dad below. Grandpa's house standing at the kitchen window as always....he lives on a busy road and stands at the window watching the passerbyers

Grandpa Vicente loves to hand out by the front window of his house. This is the kitchen/dinning area window. It looks out onto the street... The street is made of cobblestone. 

Blumenau, Santa Catarina

After Curitiba and Morretes, we rented a car and drove down to Blumenau, Santa Catarina. Santa Catarina state is where Priscila's parents grew up and mother's side of the family all live today. Blumenau is the capital of Santa Catarina. The drive to Blumenau was beautiful, we had to go over the mountains and down again. Mom and dad began to feel more at home when we entered Santa Catarina, more land, more mountains, more farms...very beautiful. We drove for about 3 hours....Here is a picture of us in the car..













When we arrived, Priscila's aunts and uncles went to pick us up by the highway, since we did not know how to get to Grandpa Vicentes house. We spent quite a few hours just meeting part of the family and talking - P's grandpa, spoke a lot about how he started his family...and P loved to hear his stories... Here are some pictures of our first day in Blumenau at P's uncle's house, Pedro (Peter) where we stayed... The lady in pink is Aunt (tia) Celia...she looks the most like P's Grandmother who passed away more than 25 years ago, along with Tio Vilmar and Tio Pedro holding the grilling fork from Linen's and Things...hehehe

Morretes, Parana State

Our last day with mom and dad in Curitiba, we decided to take a train ride through the Atlantic Forest and spend time relaxing and just enjoying nature. Here are a few pictures of our trip to Morretes - the train ride lasted 3 hours each way...When we arrived we did some tourist shopping and ate the famous Parana food, borreado (beef stew with flour) - here are a few pictures of our time in Morretes.





















We went right on that bridge and through 13 tunnels. It was an amazing experience and well worth it. So worth it, that when mom and dad left Brazil, Jeremy insisted we go back to Morretes and do some hiking, which we did and we want to do it again. It was an amazing time...






At Morretes, we ate the famous Parana dish, Borreado (beef stew with flour) that is cooked underground in a clay pot for hours...with fried shimp, banana, oranges, rice and and natural juice...can't remember if there was more . It took us a few hours to get through out lunch. We all had to adjust eating our bigger meals in the afternoon, as apposed to evening. So most days consisted of a large breakfast, a large lunch and a snack for dinner, cheese and crackers or bread.

Priscila left Brazil when she was only 9 years old. She went back a few times and each visit has its limits on who can be visited. This time, we visited family members on her father's side, her cousin Marcos. Here is a picture of Marcos two sons (Priscila's first time meeting them) with Mikely, Priscila's other cousin who drove us around for the day.

Here is Marcos, who continued the family business that Priscila's dad and younger brother started when P was a little girl. Twenty years ago, P's dad and brother just worked from home, replacing broken windows for the neighbors, now the business has grown a tons, and Goulart Vidros (Goulart Glass), works mostly with commercial buildings. What a blessing...

Marcos could not remember who Priscila was for a long time. Who can blame him, she was only 9 when she left and he was in his teens. Slowly by the time we left, he faintly remembered which of the girls Priscila was - the chubby one...