Planning the Anderson Family Reunion

Recently, our family held a special reunion in the Seattle Southside area. Our family reunion is every two (2) years, hosted in a different city. How it generally works, is that a host/hosts volunteer to host the next reunion and a place is chosen.

2018 was in Seattle Southside, a destination in which we found to be one of the best family reunion locations on the west coast, and in 2020, we plan to host our reunion in Atlanta, Georgia.TEASER BREAK

Each year, the most meaningful moment of our reunion is when we greet each other with hugs and kisses. This year's second most meaningful moment was at our banquet, when we were being entertained for hours by Seattle's greatest female vocalist Josephine (Ms. Josie) Howell.

Family Reunion Schedule

Traditionally we always schedule the first night, so that we can meet new and regular family reunion attendees, play trivia games about family members, welcoming new additions into the family, eating and dancing. On the second day, we charter a bus and tour the host city for several hours and then spend some free time for the night on the town. On the third night, we have a banquet, words of encouragement for the family, especially for the youth, and pay tribute to those who have passed away. We offer scholastic scholarships in three categories: elementary school, high school and college. Before the night ends we select our next reunion city, and then dance together to the end of the night.

We found that Seattle Southside area is ideal for a reunion such as ours because of its close proximity to many businesses, downtown Seattle, amusement activities, shopping and Sea-Tac Airport. Our Seattle Southside hotel was a good place for our reunion, with adequate meeting space, great amenities, complimentary shuttle service and wonderful staff in all departments that we had the privilege to work with.

Complimentary Family Reunion Planning Assistance

During our planning stages we received a complimentary Travel Planner from the RTA, which helped us immensely in planning our reunion. Most importantly, the personal letter to the Anderson family written by a Seattle Southside Business Development Manager included in the welcome bags from Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority (available at the hotel upon our arrival) meant a lot. We appreciated the latest 2018 – 2019 Travel Planner, which included updated tourist attractions and coupons like the Seattle Premier Attractions pamphlet. They were very useful, and the Dining Guide covered all our different appetites.

Feedback from the family was complimentary about the continental breakfasts provided by the hotel and the ease of getting from the hotel to different venues by shuttle. The cooperation between hotels to meet housing needs was fantastic. There were several compliments about the professionalism of the hotel staff. Also, we received plenty of feedback at our banquet about the delicious food we had catered by WithStyle Catering.

One special moment happened for a family member living in California had been looking for his father’s family members since the age of twelve (12). After years of searching, he finally found one of his uncles several months ago on Facebook. He attended the family reunion at SeaTac, WA and met many relatives. We had a GREAT union and plan to stay in touch.

Travel Advice

My advice to future visitors (whether or not they have been to the Pacific Northwest and planning a trip to SeaTac), is seek guidance from the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority in order to take the guess work out of what to do and where to go.

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