Perhaps it’s because I am an Aquarian, but like Tracey Rapisardi, author of “Simply by the Sea,” I am a lover of water. I never tire of walking by the ocean or viewing the barges and pleasure boats on the Mississippi River. Years ago I lived a half mile from the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, California. I treasured getting lost in my thoughts as I walked the beach daily. I spent much of my professional life in Memphis, where I saw the Mississippi River almost daily. Since 1981 I have traveled to historic Natchez, Mississippi, mostly to sit on a hotel balcony in Vidalia, Louisiana and observe the skyline of Natchez; view with high powered binoculars the ever moving, ever changing river; and wave at the barge captains and deckhands. Several steamboats dock in Natchez, and they beckon me to go onboard. (I’m convinced that in a previous life I lived on a steamboat.) At dusk the Mississippi River bridge lights come on, and it is magical. While it is not an ocean, the Mississippi River has almost the same effect on me.
Read More