Another Sunday, another Sunday Stills Photo Challenge. This week, the challenge is ‘early’. And the first thing that came to my mind is how the early morning sunrise fills my heart with joy.

I love seeing the sunrise. Sunsets are pretty good too. But there is something special about watching the sunrise, in the stillness of the dawn, before the rest of the world has really awakened yet. I feel like I’m snatching some precious moments that are only meant for the lucky few.

Since moving here to Florida, we’ve enjoyed the sunrise in a lot of different ways. This one shows the view around Lake Debra, which is the small lake near where we live. My husband and I like to take a walk around it when our schedules work out.

And this one is a nearby Lake Crane. Glad we saw this little guy during the daylight first. I might have had a different feeling about him if I saw him when it was still dark enough to question what you think you’re seeing!

And even though we live in Orlando, we try to make it out to the beach as often as we can. Since it’s over an hour to get there, we’re not there at sunrise, but 8:00 AM in the morning is nice and early. With so few people around, it’s almost like we’re on our own private beach. We usually spend a couple of hours and leave by ten when more people start showing up.

And finally, the sunrise burning off the fog in Panama City Beach in the top photo, which was the view from the front door of our hotel. Meanwhile, the moon setting on the opposite side of our hotel as seen from our balcony.

I hope you enjoyed this ‘early’ photo challenge. #SundayStills can be found on Terri’s Second Wind Leisure blog.