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Diane's DiaryNew York - 7/23/02-9/19/02 We arrived back at my parent's house about 1am on 7/24. The worse part of the trip was changing planes in Miami airport- naturally our gate for our flight to NY was far from where we landed. We had mixed feelings about coming home. Sure we were glad to see everyone again as we missed our family & friends. I especially missed our 17.5 year old cat Mr. Cinnamon. We got him as a kitten when we were just married & I really missed the old guy. I know my Mom has taken good care of him except he is our cat & I really miss him. I wish we could have had him with us but the vet had advised against us when we left because of his age. I'm not sure how well he would like the boat anyway. Our tenants moved out on 7/25 & we met them at the house to make sure everything was in good shape. Well, they left the house immaculate. I am sure IBM paid for the cleaning but they really left it in excellent condition. They even had the rugs steam cleaned. So, even though they left early by about 2 weeks, we were pleased the house was in such good condition. The next question was to rent it out again or sell it? The rental market for corporate relocations was horrible. IBM & all the other corporations are laying off people not relocating them. The job situation in NY is horrible. We know a number of people who were laid off. 9/11 really hit the NY economy worse than probably any other part in the US. Plus, Larry said he didn't want to come back to NY again after our trip. His parents have both died & he has no other close family in NY. Our friends & my family are here but we hardly saw any of them while we were home. Most everyone was involved in their own lives & didn't seem to want to have or make time to see us. However, some of our friends really kept in contact & we were really glad to see them. It's amazing how few people really asked us about our trip - some did but most did not. Anyway, since we haven't had any luck renting the house out again for the price we wanted we decided to sell. We put an ad in the paper but it was the beginning of August, hot & a lot of people were on vacation. We got some responses but not as many as we had hoped with a supposedly hot RE market. So, we decided to list the house with the RE agent who had rented it. Well, within 5 days of listing it we had 2 full price offers on the house! So, now it was sold. Where would we move too? Don't know yet but we are thinking of FL since housing prices are considerably cheaper. We are looking at the Tampa area. Hope we can get good jobs though. Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we come back to the US next year. We moved back into our house while we were home but since most of our furniture was in storage, it wasn't that comfortable. We did manage to get our bed out of storage as the blowup one was not very comfortable. We had 2 folding chairs & our outdoor set to sit on. We didn't even use the dishwasher the entire time as we were eating off paper plates. We did have a 13 inch TV but there really wasn't much to watch unless we paid for premium cable & it was too expensive to do that. We finally went out & bought a VCR for $50 to rent movies. Anyway, it felt strange to be home. I really loved my house after all the renovations we did to it but we both felt like we didn't fit in anymore. It was definitely very difficult for me to sell the house as I definitely had an emotional attachment to it. The things I probably appreciated most while at home was the washing machine & having a car. It was so nice being able to have my own washing machine again. Hand washing clothes is definitely not one of my favorite things to do while cruising. It was the one thing I probably miss the most. I can live without the dishwasher but not the washing machine! It will probably be at least 1.5 years, probably 2, until I have my own machine again. The car is a real luxury for going to the grocery store. It is very difficult taking public transportation to the grocery store. All of these things just make you appreciate having them even more. It's something we in the US do not appreciate until we don't have them. Just think of the people in our country who can't afford these things. In the islands many people do not have cars & a lot do not have a washer. Everyone wanted to know where we are moving to next year. Well, we don't know ourselves. We certainly know we do not want to be in area with kids since we don't have any. So, the best thing would be for us to move to an adult only community - not with a bunch of old folks though! Anyway, I want to buy a house again but Larry would be content to live on the boat forever. I need my space & like having a big house to spread out in. I also like my privacy & did not like living in a co-op when we had first gotten married. Only time will tell what will happen. We probably will live on the boat until we decide where to go too & if we can get jobs. We don't want to buy something & then find we don't like the area or can't get jobs. Anyway, we probably won't be back in the US until summer of next year. So, we have lots of time to decide what to do. We went up to the Newport boat show & stayed in the Marriott hotel there. We had stayed here lots of times before - nice hotel & only several blocks to the show. We came up on Monday & left on Friday. It was nice to be there without the hoards of summer traffic since it was after Labor Day. We were actually there on the anniversary of 9/11. It was extremely sad & I'm glad we weren't in NY that day as it was almost unbearable. Bush had asked for all museums in the US to be free today & I think it was a great idea. All the mansions were free & we actually got to see the Doris Duke house, which had just opened to the public 2 years before. Normally, the tour was $25USD per person & while it was very interesting I certainly would not have paid that price to see it. We went to the Newport show with free tickets we got from Larry's friend Joe. Thanks Joe! We actually saw 2 ex-cruisers we knew at the show - Green Flash & Mystique. Green Flash graciously offered us to come stay at their house overnight. It was extremely nice of them. Cruisers seem to know how to take care of each other & understand what we each need. We really appreciated their offer. It's ironic they offered us to stay in their house when we really didn't know them that well & yet we had "friends" we knew from when our boat was up in RI for the summer that never even offered us to stay on their boat, yet it was right near Newport & we knew them much better. I hope it's that they just didn't think about it, yet Green Flash offered right away & told us we were welcome anytime. Very nice folks indeed! As a matter of fact, most cruisers are different from friends & family back home. The camaraderie among cruisers is truly amazing & is something you don't often see in the "real" world. People at home don't seem to understand how we can possibly like living on a small cramped boat! Most people do not understand the cruising life & it is difficult to explain it to them. I cannot explain why we like it so much here. Most times we do but there are definitely times I don't like it. We finally got back to Destiny on 9/19. We were lucky we had friends watching our boat while we were gone or Larry would have come back to the boat sooner. I will definitely miss Mr. C & am hoping he is still alive when we get back home next year. He looked really good for his age but you never know with cats his age. I took him to the vet while we were home & he said he was a tough old bird! Anyway, it will be strange going back to NY next year knowing we don't live there anymore. But it definitely was good to be back at Destiny & the cruising lifestyle. Things were much more expensive while we were at home. Most of our friends all wanted us to go out to eat with them. They didn't realize that we don't have the money we once did & don't like to spend that much anymore. We hardly ever went out to eat by ourselves but did take out pizza & Chinese food a few times. We can definitely live a lot cheaper on the boat. Also, food was very expensive in NY compared to out here. I can buy shrimp for around $5lb here while in the US it was over $10lb - for that price I wouldn't buy it! There were a lot of things I wouldn't buy because I felt it was too expensive. When we go back to work & have money again then we'll splurge but for now we will continue to eat on the boat & be conservative. I also found people bought so many things I don't think they really need. The US society is really geared to buy, buy, buy & so much of it is not necessary. Having a small boat & not a lot of space makes us not able to buy things we don't need simply because there is no room to put it! Anyway, it was good to be back to Destiny & the cruising lifestyle! We want to see more of Venezuela before we leave. |