What is Home?
Two weeks ago we returned to Seattle to spend some time with family. Usually, we glide in for six weeks each year to celebrate the holidays and then take off again. But we decided to take a break from full-time travel because our youngest grandson turns two this week, and my older brother is in poor health. We will still travel but also enjoy being “home” in Seattle. Which brings me to the question: What is home? We still don’t have one of our own, but does that matter?
A good reason to spend the summer in Seattle! He’s walking and talking now.
When we left Seattle in 2013 to become “The Senior Nomads” our hypothesis was this: “If we sold all of our belongings, including our home, could we travel the world full-time, living in other people's homes for what we’d spend if we stayed in Seattle?” At that time, we owned a very nice townhome in Seattle’s lower Queen Anne neighborhood.
This photo was taken early in our journey. We still have these workhorse REI bags - big enough to fit our all-important bed pillows.
As it turns out, the answer was yes. We’ve lived in over 300 Airbnbs in 94 countries on 6 continents. We’ve also had some hotel stays, a few house-sits, and sometimes stayed with friends. But we haven’t had our own four walls for 11 years.
You would think after cooking in that many kitchens, standing under that many showers, and sleeping in so many beds, we’d have a punch list of “must haves” when we have a home of our own. But in fact, we only know that we don’t need much. Especially things! We’ve made do with what we find in each home.
I love the challenge of cooking in whatever kitchen I find myself. And also shopping the local markets.
Over the years, rather than thinking about what we didn’t have, we embraced the idea that our homes reflected that country's culture. We used what they provided and did our best to live fully in that situation. Of course, some were better equipped than others.
The most organized kitchen of all was in Girona, Spain. Most drawers don’t look like this!
Not much to work with in Marakkesh … but I’ve also had kitchens that Ina Garten would approve of.
This one in Mexico City had cupboards filled with delicious condiments and staples - and Rioja in the fridge.
There are so many ways to shower! We loved this bath/shower combo. We had an outdoor shower in Kigali, Rwanda, that we shared with several lizards.
We’ve slept in so many beds now that we fall asleep on almost any type. What’s a sleep number?
We’ve lived in just about every sort of home you can imagine. Our budget doesn’t stretch to the high end, but if you balance a week in London with a week in Lima, we’ve averaged $90 USD a night over ten years! That’s tucked us into many interesting living spaces - almost all of them very comfortable. A few that were more interesting than others included a motorhome in Melbourne, a sailboat in Valencia, a closet-size apartment in Tokyo, a hut in Rwanda, an apartment above a sex shop in Bucharest, and a home carved deep into a cliff in Salzburg.
This is a collection of some of the Airbnbs we’ve stayed in. All of the listings are on our website, www.seniornomads.com, under the TRAVELS tab. Some may no longer be available - and the pricing will have changed. Over our ten-plus years of living almost exclusively in Airbnbs, we’ve averaged $90 USD a night. Of course, you must have a mix of accommodations to make that work.
What we’ve learned is that “home” is, in fact, where the heart is. I don’t know if you are familiar with the book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse - it’s amazing (as is the Oscar Award-winning animated short), but the point is that the young protagonist is lost and looking for a home. He isn’t sure what that is exactly, but in the end, he realizes that “Home isn’t always a place, is it?” In fact, “it’s a place to love and be loved. “
Home has always been where we lay the bed pillows we brought from home. From there, we set about filling the refrigerator with familiar foods, putting the family photos we travel with on that same fridge, buying flowers, lighting candles, setting up the electronics, getting out the Scrabble game, doing some laundry - and if it was a longer stay, and we can get our hands on one, we finish a jigsaw puzzle. And, of course, we explore our new “home town.”
Add to that all the things you can do online —from family chats to online banking to telemedicine to plugging in our Amazon FireStick, and you’ve got everything you need to nest.
This photo was taken in 2017 for a newspaper interview in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. They loved the “pillow” story.
All this brings us back to the decision to spend more time in our hometown of Seattle. Were we ready to take an extended break from our travels? Sort of. So, we decided to look for an affordable option that would allow us to continue to travel. There seemed to be three choices. One would be to stop in Seattle for a month or so, rent an Airbnb, and spend time with family before continuing our travels. The second option would be to find an affordable apartment or house to rent and furnish it! Would we need a car? A third option would be to ask the Universe to deliver a hybrid of those two.
Thank you, Ganesha - you earned your reputation as the God of good luck. You delivered the perfect “home”.
The Ganesha statue I picked up in Mumbai last November delivered! We put out the word that we were looking for a furnished “lock and leave” rental at an affordable price somewhere in greater Seattle. Through a friend, we met a couple with a young son who wanted to spend a year at their second home in the San Juan Islands. They hesitated to empty their home in Edmonds, Washington (home to Rick Steves) to turn it into a traditional rental - but still hoped they could find a paying tenant who would be flexible with the terms.
Enter the Campbells! This was perfect for us—and it was perfect for them. We have a two-month European trip planned for September and October, and we will return to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for three months starting in January. Otherwise, we will enjoy the bucolic waterfront town of Edmonds.
Edmonds is about a 20-minute drive north of downtown Seattle. There is a ferry landing where you can catch a boat to Kingston, the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula.
We still don’t have a home of our own, but we have a beautiful place to live and can continue to wander the world and make lasting memories with family. What more can you ask for?
The Senior Nomad saga continues …thanks for following along,
Debbie and Michael Campbell
The Senior Nomads