Back on South Padre Island!

I'm living back in the Lower Rio Grande Valley after having spent a year in South Dakota. The scenery was beautiful and the wildlife was abundant, and I especially loved being around my daughter for a year, but my health was deteriorating again in the cold, dry northern climate. So when I heard of an apartment opening up for me where I was before, I got rid of most of my belongings once again and started to prepare for the move. I had already begun to prepare my vehicle for living on the road during my travel time, as illness and finances make hotels off limits for me. I truly enjoyed the trip down, taking my time to visit family and enjoy some sights along the way. I allowed about two weeks for the trip down instead of the usual two-day trip. It was so enjoyable! I hope to journal the trip itself at some point, but for the purpose of revamping this blog, I will just pick up from the time I got to the BEACH!

I've missed these amazing sunrises! 
(I only had my cell phone camera at first, but you can't go wrong here.)

Right off, I saw a seagull catching his breakfast. 

He'll take it to go. 

Before the Crack of Dawn

 

I'm an early morning person. I think I set a morning alarm, maybe, once or twice a year. I usually rise naturally before 6:30 a.m. Once in a while, I even wake up before 5 a.m., as was the case today. So I was able to get to the beach well before sun-up.

It was one of those mornings where the clouds were hiding the sun . . .  

. . . but as soon as it rose about the cloud layer, the clouds seemed to dissipate and it turned to into a beautiful, golden sunrise.

Now, that's worth waking up for . . .

Good Morning, Sun!

 

You know the saying - "Up with the birds?"

Well, today I was literally up with the birds, as I made my way to the beach to see the sunrise on the Jetties for the first time in months. 

As you may know, if you follow this blog, I came here to the Lower Rio Grande Valley because I have a lot of trouble with cold, so, while I'm still an early bird, I've been doing my mornings indoors ever since the first northerlies brought winter conditions to the LRGV. I have been waiting patiently for a time when the early morning temps would be at least 70 with no fog before going to see the sunrise. It made it to 70, but especially with that cool ocean breeze, it still feels cold to me. But I made it. 

The first seagull I saw was looking pensively at this little yellow rubber fishy (some people have rubber duckies, but here on the Jetties, you will occasionally find rubber fishies, unknowingly left behind by the fishermen), evidently trying to decide it if was just ornamental or actually a good breakfast food. He passed. 

A great blue heron was also out quite early, watching the fishing boats come in. 

Today, I was actually the first one on the beach, but before long, the first of the hearty fishermen and women were lining the Jetty. 

And then came the sunrise. There was no fancy show of colors, since the cloud cover was too much to allow for that, but rather, it was just a nice, golden glow. 

After the sunrise, I walked along the beach for a while, looking at shells, and then headed home. 

A Lovely Start to a Lovely Day

With morning lows back in the 70's, I thought it a perfect time to catch the sunrise on the Jetties, and I was right. I got to catch sight of a ship crossing the sun and to catch the first fishermen of the morning. I wanted a photo of the ship right where it was, without anyone on the Jetty, so I did my second composite photo. When I took my photo with just a few fishermen way in the background, the ship had not yet caught up with the sun, so I combined two pictures together to get what I wanted. 

A little bit later, I was able to catch a few more fishermen from a distance right as they were crossing the morning sun. Of course, as always, there had to be a string of seagulls lined up to welcome the rising sun. Beautiful morning on South Padre Island. 

Jetty to the Sunrise

 

What a lovely start to any week! I love this shot of the jetty stretching out toward the sunrise. The colors blend so nicely, and the natural look of the rock structure looks so good against the water. Just part of many wonders this day would bring.