One of the joys of vacation, or so I have been assured by more than one person, is being able to sleep in as late as you want. I must confess, I just don’t understand that. Why would anyone want to sleep in and miss the best part of the day?

When I worked in morning radio I did use an alarm clock; 3:30 comes early. But I am a naturally early riser. Five a.m. is not an unusual time for me to wake up. Some days it is earlier.

Which explains why I don’t sleep in on vacation and why I was on the beach early every morning for the two weeks we just spent in Maine. Not always for sunrise (which was around 5:35), but before 6 a.m. on 12 of 14 days (and the other two by 6:15). It is the best time of day.

There are people who get up early every morning to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic. Some of those return to bed about 6 a.m., but I’m not one of them. My habit is an early morning walk along the beach to the Old Orchard Beach pier. Then I sit and read for a couple of hours, enjoying the sea air and the calm of the beach. After breakfast then I return to the beach, though by that time it is getting warm.

My friends and family appreciate my early morning habits, even if they have no desire to emulate them. I bring down the blankets, beach chairs and umbrellas from the cottage and set things up, right at the high tide mark. The beach gets crowded after 9 a.m., but we already have a prime spot for the day. That’s important when your intention is to remain on the beach until sunset. We eat later in Maine than in Ottawa – and on more than one occasion dinner winds up being served on the beach.

So today some early morning photos. Not sunrise – I’ll save those for another day, tomorrow perhaps. Just some pictures to help you relax. At least vicariously.