Sunrise

I feel very fortunate to get to live in New Jersey.  Despite the bad rap it gets from television and movies, it is a pretty great state.  From our house, we have the mountains an hour to the north and the beach an hour to the south.  My father has a house in the Poconos, which is a great, quiet getaway. A place we have always loved going to relax.  There is a rambling creek that runs behind the back of the house that is so soothing.

My mom loved it up there.  We all did!  Although I enjoy the time we spend there, I also LOVE the beach.  There is just something about it that makes me so happy.  I wish we took more time to go “down the shore” more often.

This is one of the reasons I love  Hilton Head so much.  This year, the place we are renting is less than a five minute walk to the beach.  Last night, Dave, Drew and I took a bike ride along the ocean. We went after sunset but it was still beautiful.

Drew has been asking to go find shells and sea glass.  I wanted to see the sunrise.  This morning, he set his alarm so that we could get out there early and satisfy both of our desires!!

Sunrise was at 6:44 am so when the two of us headed over to the beach, it was still pretty dark out.  When we first arrived he picked out our spot to sit, and as we saw the sky turn a pretty shade of pink, we knew we had made the right choice!  As we sat there, on a nearly empty beach, sea birds were flying all around us.  The sun appeared – right on schedule 🙂  The only word I can think to describe it is “glorious.”  Even Drew was mesmerized by it.  We took lots of pictures!  I cannot believe that I have never taken the time to sit out and actually do this before.  I know I have seen the sun rise and set over the water before, usually in a car or from inside somewhere, but to get up early and make it a point to be there and watch as it happened was really quite a site.  Drew already asked if we can do it again tomorrow!

His mission to find sea glass was futile but as we walked we found a lot of conch shells, (at least that is what I think they are called.)  Small ones at first and then…JACKPOT!  A big one.  He was so excited.  We made sure nothing was alive in any of them.  He must have gathered at least twelve of them.  An older woman on the beach saw his collection and told him she rarely sees shells that big on that beach so that certainly made Drew’s shell expedition a success!  He found a sand dollar but those have to be thrown back in the water.  They aren’t allowed to be taken from the beach.  They are pretty to look at though, so we took a picture to remember.

Maybe we will get up and do it again tomorrow… It was definitely a morning I’d like to repeat.  Who knows, we might even be able to convince DJ to wake up and join us…we can always hope!

Tagged: conch shells, hilton head island, I love new jersey, sand dollars, sunrise, sunrise at the ocean, the poconos