Richmond West Virginia

A place I have traveled to that has affected me in a positive way is Richmond West Virginia. I had gone there for a family reunion in the blazing hot summer of 2009. While I was there I did a lot of fun and interesting things. I was there for three days and two nights. The first day I arrived there was a meet and greet at my great grandmothers house which sat on a huge hill and smelled of sweet potato pie. This is where all of my family members came together and introduced themselves to one another. A lot of my family I had never met or hadn’t remembered like my great aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was family from all over. There were some from California, Ohio home of the buckeyes, New Jersey, and Alabama.
The second day there all of the younger generation ages ranging from 13-18 at the time went shopping at the mall and to the movies. This is where we got time to get to know each other a little more and have fun. I remember shopping with two of my cousins like there was no tomorrow. We hit just about every store there was buying clothes, shoes, accessories, you name it. We were living it up. At the movies I had gotten the biggest buttery bucket of popcorn I have ever had. It smelled delicious. It had that rich buttery smell to it. The rich smell that will make your head hurt if you inhale too long. The others who stayed back did their own thing. A lot of the older folk stayed back at my great grandmothers and reminisce on the past. They talked about us kids and how we had all gotten so big since the last time they had seen us. They also laughed about old memories from previous reunions. Later on that night back at the hotel we went swimming until the pool closed. The water was ice cold and felt lovely especially after a long hot day of shopping. Then we went back to the room and watched movies until we fell asleep.
The last day there we woke up that morning and had a big family breakfast at some pancake place that smelled of maple syrup. Can’t remember the name of it but it was awesome. After breakfast we laughed and played some more over my great grandmothers house for the last time. Some of us played video games while the others played outside. We weren’t outside too long before the sweat started rolling down our foreheads. A lot of my aunts and other female relatives helped her prepare a big dinner for us before we left. we had crunchy fried chicken, cheesy macaroni and cheese, greens, sweet cornbread, fish, cake, and pie just to name a few. We had everything you could think of. After dinner was over we all said our goodbyes and headed home.
West Virginia affected me in a positive way because it helped me appreciate the word family even more than before. Going to Richmond taught me the value of family and how coming together brings about so much love and peace. Lastly that trip taught me how important it is to not take your family for granite and to have fun while you can.