There's No Place Like Home

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.

-Dorothy … Wizard of Oz

Well, Dorothy was right for the most part. There is no place like home, but exactly where is home for the Nine of Cups crew nowadays. I'm not sure we really know. When we're aboard Nine of Cups, she's home and has been for the past 17 years.

Now that we've purchased a home in Las Vegas, it kind of feels like home, but not really. We have lots of our stuff there. We have a room and our own bed. We do homey, land kind of chores. We enjoy family time, but it doesn't feel like home yet. The suitcases are always semi-packed and we still cart stuff between the house and the boat.

For years, we've traveled away from Nine of Cups from faraway places and stayed with my sister, Lin, in Boston or with family in Las Vegas … sometimes for extended periods. We'd have our own room and have left bits of our stuff there over the years. Again, being with family is always wonderful, but it's not exactly home. Getting used to other people's routines and idiosyncrasies and making them mesh with ours is a cause of angst at times.

Sometimes we feel a bit displaced … obviously, of our own doing. Family always makes us feel welcome, but we're used to floating, just the two of us, and getting used to having other people around is both pleasant and sometimes a challenge (for them, as well as us, for sure).

So I guess the answer is “home is where the heart is”. Maybe it will change one day, but for now our hearts remain together aboard Nine of Cups. We'll be heading back at the end of February and though we'll enjoy our time with family in Las Vegas … it'll be good to be home.