Sunrise on the Atlantic Ocean

by The Perkins
(RV-Travel-with-Kids.com)

October 14, 2008
Sunrise 7:19am

It seems as though watching the sunrise is one of those things you just have to experience in every place on earth. I don't mean catching it by accident, but actually planning to go and relax and watch nature in her glory.

So that's just what we did. A couple days before leaving Ft Lauderdale, Florida, we got up extra early to witness the sunrise on the Atlantic Ocean. This day, in mid October, it was warm and quite breezy, and the sky was covered in clouds.

As we got up, we noticed that it had been a full moon. How perfect! We decided to make a morning of it so went and got McDonalds (I'm not a huge Mickey D's fan, but I do love their breakfasts) Egg McMuffins, a few bottles of water, and went to spread our blanket out in the sand.

When we arrived on the Atlantic Ocean, we noticed that beach erosion had made the waves reach almost to the street. Now, this isn't a little town, nor is A1A a back road. No, it is a main thoroughfare. I was watching the news and a couple weeks ago, the sand was covering the street!

The nice thing was that we weren't too far from the truck. The bad thing was, we didn't think to bring any towels to dry off with (after all, we were just watching the sunrise on the Atlantic Ocean, not swimming).

We got out of the truck and tried to spread the beach blanket out, but the wind was quite heavy. It practically blew away! But with the combination of kids and shoes, we were able to sit on it and carefully eat our Egg McMuffins.

The cloud cover delayed the sunrise quite a bit, as every time we started to get a glimpse of the rising sun, a cloud moved to cover it up! It was as though God was playing tricks on us!

Now, I'm not a wealthy person. I don't have money falling all around me. In fact, I wonder sometimes if our trip is going to work at all.

But I'll tell you: watching your kids watch the sunrise on the Atlantic Ocean, on a Tuesday morning in October, with huge waves chasing them and knocking them over (thus, the need for the missing towels), on a glorious morning can sure make you feel rich.

The kids had fun for a while squishing sea foam, chasing each other, and trying to stay dry (though I wonder how hard they were trying that last one). We had fun describing what we saw in the clouds as the sun started to rise. Was it a mountain range with a volcano spewing lava onto the other peaks? Or a magical enchanted fairy garden in the sky?

All in all, it was a beautiful morning, and is a must do when you are on the Atlantic Coast.