Forty-Five and Counting!

April 4, 2009 was our 45th wedding anniversary, so Gary & I did something unusual for us, we celebrated "LARGE"! We went to a Bed & Breakfast in Historic Natchez, located on the beautiful Mississippi River. Here is the beginning of the Natchez Trace that was traveled hundreds of years ago. The Trace ends in Nashville, Tennessee, and today has been made into a Parkway through Mississippi where travelers can see nature and history all along the way. Natchez is the oldest city in the South, even older than New Orleans. We enjoyed taking a guided tour of the city, Melrose plantation, and Darby Fudge Company, but what we most enjoyed was setting on our veranda in the evening and watching the water of the mighty Mississippi roll. The Bluff Top Inn where we stayed sits on a bluff 200 feet above the the river just above the old Under-the-Hill area of the city. Our room was up stairs where the balcony was just off the sitting room shared by a young couple celebrating their 4th anniversary. The mood was so peaceful, and yes, romantic even for us "old folk".

At breakfast the next morning everyone smiled when I told them that Gary sang to me as we watched the river the evening before. Of course I also confessed that the song was at my beckoning. Neil Varnell the owner/operator of the B&B cooked a grand southern breakfast, after which he conducted a ceremony he has created to honor people celebrating anniversaries.

The entire trip was Friday Morning thru Saturday evening, yet the experience will last me for the rest of my life. The great thing was when we got home we still had half the weekend left, and still got to go to Church on Sunday.

We did have such a good time on our 45th. I don't know what we could do next year to top it, but it will be fun to make celebrating a new tradition.