A Meaningful Place for My Family

A meaningful natural place for me is Lake Wenatchee State Park. In June of 2021, my family moved from New York to Washington to expand our new life. My husband who had focused on his research had no time to spend time with our family when we lived in New York, I was like a single mom at that period. Moving to Washington was when my family truly started life in the US, and we started exploring many places together. And we finally have our family life. Washington is a meaningful state for my family. In the summer of 2015, my husband had a three-month internship job in Washington, and we just found out I was pregnant when my husband started his internship. That year, I wanted to go to Leavenworth, but we didn’t go because my husband had no time, and we didn’t have a car. However, after we settled down, we decided to go to the place where we’d like to go in 2015.

As we drove closer to Leavenworth, there was so much crowded traffic. When we looked for a parking spot, there was a man in his car whose family was going to leave. He rolled down the window and gave us a free parking ticket and his parking spot. But even though we didn’t spend much time looking for a parking spot, we still decided to leave Leavenworth in a short time because it was too crowded and it didn’t match my imagination of Leavenworth, a German village. So, we also gave away our parking spot and ticket and tried to find somewhere on our way home to fill the pity. We were very surprised that Washington has changed so much over these years, and everywhere is so crowded, not like the year we were here. Then I found Lake Wenatchee State Park and we decided to go there.

There were two entrances to the park that were separated by the river, we just picked one at random. When we drove into the park there was a camping area. We saw some tents and RVs there and I thought it was certainly still crowded.

We decided to walk around for a few minutes and then go home. As we walked further into the park, I saw a path that was going to the lake, and I was so surprised that I didn’t hear any sound of people and didn’t see anyone. As we got to the end of the path and closer to the lake where the trees and mountains were around, I saw the sunshine shining on the surface of the lake with the reflection of trees and mountains. The lake was so clear, and I could see fish and rocks. My son and my husband played with water and tried to catch fish in any way. I just watched them and enjoyed the moment of quiet. I had never seen my husband’s peace and a smile on his face when he was with our son. I understood how he had a lot of pressure gaining his degree the years when we were in New York. I finally saw the man I had met in the beginning who finally came back into my life. He smiled with my son, and we all smiled. That was meaningful for me. I didn’t know how long we stayed there but I felt like the life I’d like to have was just like this moment. I felt like I was in a dream and the stress of years had been released. My life seemed to start over at that moment. Lake Wenatchee State Park became my favorite place. The second time we were there, we brought a hammock and kayak and lunch to picnic and spend a day for family time. The place is away from the people and isn’t so far from our home. It’s a peaceful and quiet heaven and a meaningful place for me.
By Hui-Chun Chuang

By Rylee Hofstad