Once a year members of my husband’s mother’s family gather at Lake Siskiyou for a reunion. A lot of talk happened this weekend about when the first one took place, but I believe it was sometime in the late 1980’s. I didn’t start attending until around 2010 or 2011 and since then I have attended most of them - there was one year when there were terrible fires (not the Carr Fire, before that) and then there was the Covid year, and we didn’t go those two years.

This year was one of the lowest attendance of any since I started going. A few things have changed over the years. When I first went my mother-in-law (MIL) and her brothers were all there. In the intervening years one of the brothers has died; two years running the brother who lives in Wyoming has been unable to make it. The past couple of years my MIL’s health has interfered with her ability to attend as well. This was the first year we went that only one brother was in attendance and he was only there for an overnight visit. Besides age having a factor with the older attendees, this was a year that several of the younger attendees started college and that meant that parents were readying their kids for that, packing them up and settling them in. And, sadly, one couple is awaiting the impending death of a father, so they were only able to come for a a dinner and left early the next morning. In all, there were probably 25-30 people there but not all at the same time, and half of those were under 15.

When I first started attending I was uncomfortable. I didn’t know anyone and my in-laws hadn’t fully accepted me yet (that changed the year that I drove my stepson to the event, while his father left home early to go fishing; apparently, my willingness to drive him solo for five hours was my “in”). Generally, there are a lot of people and I wouldn’t remember everyone’s name, especially not when there were parents and two to four kids in each family pod. But I was befriended one year by one husband of a cousin and after that I began to look forward to seeing him and his family. I gradually got to know this man’s wife and her sisters and to look forward to seeing them. Last year, just weeks after losing my mom, these same sisters were so wonderful to me, letting me talk about my mom and how I felt. I felt really part of the family fully that year. So this year, with only one there for the one dinner, one there for two nights and one not there at all, I really missed them! The one thing I can say is that I got to know the one sister who was there for the two nights better than I had previously, so that was a gift.

We arrived on site on Tuesday, a couple of days ahead of the actual reunion. We spent the first day just relaxing. We did take a bike ride around the lake - there is a wonderful trail that circumnavigates the whole lake, except at the end where a creek feeds the lake. Generally, this is a rocky, uncomfortable section; this year, due to the heavy rains, the trails was almost obliterated and one of the seasonal bridges had not been placed, so it meant wading across twenty feet of fast moving water - not tough, but slippery. Besides the bike ride, we took a nap and then cooked a nice meal and just enjoyed being in the mountains.

The next few days were similar - coffee, breakfast, bike ride (we would go to the sketchy part and turn around and ride back, giving us a longer ride), lunch, beach, swim, clean up, eat. Thursday night was the first night other folks started to arrive and we all go to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. That was the night we saw the one couple and their kids (one now 19!); after dinner we had a campfire and stayed up late visiting with them. Friday we went on a boat ride on one of the cousin’s pontoon boats; that was a lot of fun, being on the water and seeing Mount Shasta and the surrounding hills over the beautiful lake. Saturday we did another boat ride and parked near the beach where the kids and some adults swam over to the beach water obstacles for an hour. I stayed on the boat and swam from there, jumping off the back a few times. Somehow, on the last jump, I managed to break a toe! I spent the rest of Saturday hobbling around, and Sunday we drove home.

Overall, it was a lovely time at Lake Siskiyou with the reunion, even if it was a smaller group than usual. We have already booked a spot for next year and I’m already looking forward to it.

Lake Siskiyou Family Reunion 2023