Sunrise at the Beach

One of the last mornings on the beach, I managed to get myself up early enough to go for an early morning walk with Jeff and Max.  It was a lovely calm morning, and I hoped to get some good sunrise, or at least early morning images.

As we approached the formal beach area, where we figured we get the best sunrise images.  But, we weren’t the first on the beach!!  A little shorebird beat us to the beach.  The pretty part of the sunrise hadn’t yet started, but he/she definitely had a front row seat!!

As the skies began to warm, pelicans flew in their own somewhat haphazard pattern across the sky, creating a lovely profile of nature.  It was nice to be up and about when what is typically a very lively beach was very quiet.

And, as I turned to view the beach back down toward where we were camped, I got this lovely view of a deserted beach.  The seaweed residue, however, was creating quite the uncomfortable sensation for my lower legs.  Lots and lots of little sandflies or something kept choosing me as their breakfast entrée – ouch!!

Max, of course, was patiently watching me and seemed to wonder why I just didn’t move to get away from the sandflies!!  He was unusually patient.  Perhaps he was confused by what I was doing.  I just need to take him on some of my photo outings, I guess!

The beach seems to roll on into the grove (??) of palm trees.  In actuality, there is a small channel between where the beach ends and the palm trees begin.  We’re just looking at a very nice optical illusion!  And, the sunrise colors are showing off their pale color this morning, too.

As the sun rose behind the clouds, I felt like the morning was a “soft” one – no blazes of colors, just an easing into the day.  Such a relaxing way to begin the morning.

But some were up and out earlier than us.  This fishing boat is making the most of a calm morning to see what sort of catch they can reel in.  I do love the play of the soft colors on both the clouds and the water.  The reflection of the sunrise is so incredibly peaceful.  

Enjoy!

South Pacific Sunrise

We had a day at sea between Samoa and our next stop, and that morning, as I wrote in my journal, this was the show Mother Nature put on.

Enjoy!

Sunrises at Sea

For each of the days we were at sea, sailing from Hawaii to Samoa, I took a photo of each sunrise.  Now, one may think at first one sunrise looks pretty much like another, but as you can see, that isn’t at all the case!

Enjoy!

Foggy Fall Morning

For this travel blog entry, I didn’t have to travel far – just out my back door!  But, truly, sometimes, beautiful sights can be seen in the neighborhood where we live!

Foggy Fall Morning

The inspiration for the title of this blog post is this image.  When I saw the lovely fog was combined with the dawn of a new day, I just had to grab my camera and step out the back door.  A telltale sign of fall is the fact that there aren’t any hummingbirds by the feeder.  During the summertime, they are all busy fighting each other for the opportunity to sip from the feeder.  It’s just about time to take it down for the season.

Fall Morning Birds

You can’t really see them all that well, but those black spots in the sky aren’t dust on my lens – they are birds taking wing in the morning.  It was such a lovely, calm morning (as you can tell from the limp wind sock), the birds added a sense of movement to the scene.

Morning Layers

The fog was quite interesting this morning.  It seemed to rise and fall throughout sunrise.  It would rise to hide the mountains, and then fall to reveal them.  Just a few minutes before I shot this image, the mountains were almost completed hidden by the fog in front of them!

Sunny Bunny

And, look what I saw on the sitting rocks by the fire pit!  A bunny, sunning himself on one of the rocks.  I’ll bet that rock was at least a bit warmer than the surrounding ground!  He just seemed to be enjoying the sun on this chilly and foggy fall morning!

Enjoy!

Haleakala Sunrise

The reason I got the parking permit was really to see the sunrise come up over the Haleakala Crater.  Altho I tend to say that it’s dormant, when I looked it up, it’s just classified as “normal”.  It has erupted numerous times over the past 30,000 years, with the last eruption being about 500 years ago.  The name Haleakala means “house of the sun”, and its land mass makes up about 75% of the island of Maui.  However, none of this comes to mind when you’re standing there, waiting for the sun to appear.  Pretty much all you can think about is how COLD you are, because, of course, you didn’t pack winter clothes for a trip to Maui!  Still, all the cold is worthwhile when you begin to see the opening act of the sunrise – dawn breaking.

Almost Sunrise

Now, to be honest, Jeff and I didn’t stand outside during the 2 1/2 hours between the blood moon and sunrise.  Nope – we dozed in a nice, warm Jeep!  But, we did get out about 30 minutes before the sunrise and stood in the enclosed visitors’ center for a bit.  But, for the last 20+ minutes, we were outside, so I could be sure to get an unobstructed view of the sunrise.  When the sun first made an appearance, a cheer went up!

First Peek

A great source of entertainment while waiting for the sun to more fully appear was to watch how folks were trying to keep warm.  Jeff & I weren’t dressed in winter gear, but we were dressed in layers to some extent, but some folks were wearing rather warm weather attire and then attempted to wrap themselves in the blankets they presumably took from their hotel rooms.  The woman next to us made the mistake of trying to re-wrap herself.  The wind just took that blanket and kept blowing it around, so that she wasn’t able to get it around herself again to save her soul.  At least, she didn’t turn the wrong way, so that the blanket would become a bit of a parachute and carry her away!  And, there was one macho cyclist, who only had on his short sleeve riding shirt and his biking shorts.  He stood so still I began to think he had frozen in place!! He wasn’t even wearing appropriate sunrise colors, either!

Morning Colors

One of the things I am always taken with when I see photos of the Haleakala sunrise is the detail of the clouds.  For those of you who may not know this, the sort of grey just below the sun are the clouds.  They seep into the crater and then the sun rises above them.  I don’t know of many other places where you can watch the sun rise above the clouds, unless you’re flying!  Check out the clouds in these next couple of images!

Haleakala Glory

Soft Clouds on Haleakala

As the sunrise progresses, the sun begins to fill in the detail of the crater rocks that are right in front of us.  It really gives you a sense of place, so to speak.  No, you’re not up there floating above it all!  This tends to happen at the end of the “show”, and right after this we headed back to the Jeep to try to get warm and drive down the mountain.  I thought the show was over for the morning.  Little did I know!

Crater Detail

Enjoy!

Corinto, Nicaragua

The next stop on our cruise was in Nicaragua, a town called Corinto.  We had a very fun excursion there, but before I tell you about that, I want to share some of the beautiful views we saw.

Impression of Sunrise

It was very humid in Nicaragua, and when I stepped out onto our balcony on the ship, the humidity caused my lens to become foggy.  It was kind of like a soft-focus filter, and gave me this lovely view of the early morning sunrise.

Nicaraguan Volcanoes

It was rather hazy out, so I wasn’t able to get any really good shots of the countryside, but in this one you can see a few mountains.  Actually, they are volcanoes, and many in Nicaragua are active volcanoes.  In fact, Nicaragua was one of the two countries considered for what we now know as the Panama Canal.  The reason given for why Nicaragua wasn’t chosen was the volcanic activity, altho some say that was just a convenient excuse!

Red Sky at Night

The old saying for those sailing is “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.”  If this evening sky is to be believed, the sailors were all happy campers on this night!

End of Day

There was something about the small fishing boats anchored in a bay we sailed by as we left the area that appealed to me.  It just seemed so peaceful, and reminded me of some song Linda Ronstadt sang…..or was it Jimmy Buffet?

Be Your Own Light

This is another lovely evening view as we left the Corinto port.  I just love photographing lighthouses – however, there aren’t very many of them in New Mexico!  You may be wondering how we spent the day in Corinto – check out the next blog post to find out!

Enjoy!