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.

Off the Boat and Back to Las Vegas

Once again, we are on the move. Nine of Cups is staying put at Atlantic Yacht Basin and we are heading back to Las Vegas for some family time. As usual, the boat is a total shambles as we haul out duffel bags and suitcases, preparing for the trip back. This time, along with our usual clothes, laptops and other gear, we're transferring the contents of many bins that had been stored for years at Lin's back to Las Vegas. We carted it all down by car just after the holidays and now we're trying to jam it all into suitcases and duffels to get it back across the country, compliments of “two bags fly free” on Southwest Airlines.

Cups' front berth has been laden down with it all and I swear I can hear her sighing in relief as we frantically try to cram it all into our existing transit bags … which have, I must say, seen better days.

It's mostly memorabilia. You know, the topper to our wedding cake, love letters and diaries and journals, photo albums and framed pics from another time. I used to collect Christmas ornaments from each port, but we haven't celebrated Christmas aboard in a long time. All those ornaments are carefully packed in a bin which we're taking back, too.

By the time we pack up the one-way rental car with all the luggage and head to the Baltimore airport, Nine of Cups will be lighter and happier and all tidied up once again, bobbing at the dock, waiting for our return at the end of February. We've got our to-do list for leaving and another one for all the chores we need to do once we get back to Vegas.

So, what will we do with all the “stuff” when we get to Las Vegas? Well, there's a closet that we all share that's large enough to house a small family. We'll take up our share of it with all the bins and assorted crap ... I mean, stuff ... I mean precious mementos until we have the time to sift through them seriously and the courage to discard some of it. That day may never come, but David keeps hoping.