My family lived right off Riverside Park, and we kids would sometimes make the hike down to the 79th Street Boat Basin, to lean against the fence there and watch the houseboats bobbing around in the Hudson River. I imagined the people living on them as terribly rich and sophisticated, with glamorous parties every night of the week, making round-the-world cruises in their very own living rooms.

Years later, I've set out to learn how far off course my imagination had sent me.