This morning’s sunrise
This morning I woke up to the most amazing sunrise I think I have ever seen. That’s not to say it was the most amazing ever, just that I have seen.
I am more of a sunset person than a sunrise person. This may be due in part to the fact that sunsets happen at a much more reasonable hour of the day than do sunrises.
Or it may be due to the fact that I have seen enough disappointing sunrises in my time to know that it’s generally not worth my waking up early for.
Probably a combination of both.
When we were in India this past August, I awoke every morning in plenty of time to see the sunrise. Not by choice but due to the fact that every church in the area starts playing loud “music” (aka noise) at about 4 AM. That combined with roosters, etc, made for an early start to each day. So up to the roof I would go to watch the sunrise while everyone else was still sleeping (I don’t know how they could still sleep, but then again I was the only one sleeping with a door open to the outside..) Those sunrises were pretty enough, but certainly nothing worth getting up early for.
There was also the time when we awoke at 3 AM while in Hawaii to go ride up to the top of Mt. Haleakala to watch the sunrise and then bike back down the volcano. On the way up I sat in the front seat next to our dreadlocked, hippie driver who played his Moroccan reggae music the whole time and told me about Morocco and why he came to Hawaii and where to find drugs on the island. He also kept talking about how if we got to the top in time we might see a good sunrise. If I have to get up at 3 AM, it’d better be a good sunrise. Maybe it would have been had it not been completely cloudy and rainy the whole time at the top. It was August…in Hawaii….why was it raining up there? It was also freezing cold. So…after a completely unimpressive sunrise, we started the ride back down. A ride in which I was pretty sure I was going to kill myself.
So…my memories of trying to go see sunrises aren’t the greatest.
When we were in Egypt one of the things our group was supposed to go do was hike up Mt. Sinai to watch the sunrise. Supposedly it’s amaaaazing. At least according to the reviews. And what time did this wonderful sunrise-seeing expedition take off? At the crack of stinkin’ midnight. Midnight sounds more like a time to go to bed, than to get out of bed. I decided that amazing or no, that was one experience I could live without. Midnight – while wielding a flashlight – is not my idea of a good time to start an 8 hour hike (start to finish). I don’t care how much money the trip cost. As it ended up, our entire group decided that was an experience they could live without. Much to the amazement of our tour guide! He said that in all his years of leading groups he had never had an entire group decide to skip climbing Mt. Sinai. So instead he drove us all to the base of the mountain the next morning so we could at least see Mt. Sinai. I say the views from the bottom are good enough for me. It’s just a huge rock. And it looks ridiculous to try and climb.
Anyways…so…I say all of that to say, I was actually impressed this morning when I looked at the window at 6:36 and saw what looked like a sunset – in the East. If I could be guaranteed that all sunrises would be that vibrant then perhaps I’d get up more often to see them. Maybe.
And no, none of these photos are edited at all. It was really this amazing.
Photos for sale
Sooo…apparently snipping these didn’t work so well, please forgive the random cut off photos in the middle. =/
People have been asking me for a while now if I sell pictures and if they can buy them. Up till now I have only printed them for myself, my family and for friends just for fun. I can’t wait till I have my own place again, every wall will feature these prints! =) But for now I only have 3 11x14s hung in my room. Along with a few 4x6s.
I have been meaning to get a website up and running for a while now, but since that hasn’t happened yet, here’s a link to a few pics that are listed on yardsellr. Not my favorite way to list them but hey it’s free. =) I will probably post a few more later on today or tomorrow – there are sooo many pictures to wade through from over the years – if you are looking for something specific, let me know, I might have it somewhere =)
So if anyone is interested, or knows of anyone who is interested, feel free to share.
Photos for sale – the online viewing quality isn’t the greatest =/
Where I’d go Wednesday
Croatia
Croatia lies across the Adriatic Sea from Italy in Central Europe. Wikipedia says that Croatia is ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination! (By whose rankings I am not sure but…)
Croatia has many beautiful parks and preserves. Combine that with old world European architecture and…you’ve got a fabulous destination!
Plitvice National Park
*All pictures from Wikipedia
After the rain
Leaf from our glittery pink and yellow pointsettia
Reminded me of a heart
On rainy days and the deeper thoughts in life
Almost my entire family is outside trying to fix a broken water pipe right now, while I sit here by the window watching the rain come down, eating blueberry Eggo waffles, and…blogging. Yes, I do feel bad but…I really wouldn’t be any help out there anyways. All I would manage to accomplish would be to get completely soaked, and then come inside and not be able to take a shower to get cleaned up…The water line was the one that went to the water heater and so it’s shut off.
Sooo….we’ll see what happens to today’s plans. I was supposed to go in to the church this morning and then go to Tommy’s basketball game this afternoon before running errands, but I’m not going anywhere until I can wash this hair! I’ve done cold showers before, but usually when it’s 70+ degrees outside and not quite as painful.
So I am just sitting here inside where it’s warm, contemplating things like:
1. The fact that I used to go to all my brother’s sports games to watch them compete. Now I am going to watch them coach. That makes me feel old.
2. I wonder if I am getting sick or if all these symptoms are just from allergies. Namely a really annoying sore throat =/
3.Why Mormons – as a general rule – tend to be really attractive people. How do you get a corner on the market of good looks for an entire religious group? Why couldn’t Baptists have gotten that luck? It still doesn’t make any sense to me. If you have any insight into that one please do share!
4. I wonder if it will stop raining anytime soon so I can go get raindrop pictures?
5. I didn’t get a single hit from “Tim Tebow” so apparently that was a waste of time. But I did get smarter. Mi amiga and I did some research and apparently if I had written “I’m Tim Tebow’s girlfriend” I would have gotten hits. And probably lots of hate mail from around the country from all his crazy stalkers, wow. There are some weird, weird people in this world. And some of them are seeing signs as to why they are going to marry him. Pretty sure I don’t want all those crazies converging on my doorstep so…
Completely deep topics, I know, what can I say…
