Silver Bay - Family Reunion

It's hard to believe that three days ago I was at Hume in California with two of my best friends sleeping together in the back of a car, and now, I am in up-state New York with my entire family sleeping together in a one-hundred-year-old mansion. The dark green and redwood Sequoias in California have turned into trees not as big, but of greater density and a brighter green, Maple trees hugging every route and road of up-state New York. I have never seen green like the green grows here, and the older I am the more I seem to enjoy it.

The last three days have been spent traveling by car, train, and two airplanes all the way across the country. We were on and off so quick the traveling seemed short, especially after I picked up a book during our layover flight in Chicago, which I finished later that night.

My family, on my mom's side, have been coming to Silver Bay, a YMCA retreat center on Lake George, every five years for the last thirty. I guess you can call it a family tradition, something I also enjoy more as I get older. It is pretty unique that thirty-five family members from six different states reunite every five years to the place the family first began. My grandparents started the family here almost sixty years ago, and we now have the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren all under the same roof.

Our first day here, we took kayaks out on Lake George, adventured around, and found a jumping rock. The weather was cloudy but beautiful, and reminded me of the Hume Lake that was before me just a few days ago. Throughout the day we played a lot of volleyball and I was reminded of how much I love that sport. I would love to pick it up and play on a recreational team when I move to San Diego. At night my cousins, who have been getting into swing dancing, taught us all their moves and we were swinging all night. I have always wanted to learn to swing, and I think tonight was the beginning of another new passion that I plan on picking up in SD.

 I'm still getting used to living out of a backpack. I have been wearing the same clothes for five days and am starting to feel a little soggy. I think after being outside all day, I'll move on to the only other change of clothes that I have.

I called this family reunion here at Silver Bay a tradition, and that's what it is, a tradition that happens once every five years. This is the only thing I can call a tradition in my family, but it makes me excited to experience, in another week, the tradition I here about in Greece.