Why do I stress so much over packing for a trip? Always, no matter where I’m going. And I take too much. Always, no matter where I’m going. But this time I am heading north to pick up my new trailer, and I suddenly realized that it will be 100% empty when I arrive to take it. So I started packing up all my extra spatulas, silverware, paper products, basic stuff that I have duplicates of anyhow. Seemed like a no brainer. A win-win. Oh wait, towels, packed some of those. And laundry supplies since I have extra. Cleaning supplies too, again, there is so much of that stuff in this place that I probably will never have to buy it again. Then I put the seats up in the Pacifica and found out that there is an incredible amount of storage space in that car. Lots more than it seemed with the stow away seats stowed away. I hadn’t had the seats up since I bought it, and all the bins that I had in the back were sliding around back there, and now they have now disappeared into the space behind the third row seat. They won’t be sliding now, and they stack, two side-by-side, and three high. Now I have empty bins and it’s tempting to fill them up, because I can.
This sort of thing makes me nuts, and I was stewing about it at 2:30 AM, which left me plenty of time to go out for the sunrise at Bayport this morning, just to give my brain a rest. But it seemed that everyone had that same idea. There was a traffic jam at the docks, a line up of cars with their boats behind them, all waiting to get on the water. And multiple fishermen on the pier where I usually have full reign to compose shots. I figured it out eventually. It’s Saturday! I’ll bet I worked just about every Saturday for 7 years. That explains it. The sunrise wasn’t much, but this heron decided it was time for a close up. Now I’m back to packing, those empty bins are calling me…
I had a plan for Saturday morning. I figured that there was time to go to Bayport for the sunrise, and then head back home and find the Sandhill crane family as they left the pond behind me and headed out on their day’s adventures. And it was going well, I thought, as I saw the color beginning to develop in the sky. I don’t always notice the flag when I’m at Bayport, I have already tried, and failed, to get the flag to be flowing in the breeze with the colors of the sunrise behind it. I guess I need to be taller. But this day it struck me that the flag was at half-mast, and I realized it was in honor of Barbara Bush. A well-earned sign of respect I thought.
As it got lighter I turned away from the sunrise and looked to the west, looking for otters playing, or the Great Blue Heron who frequently appears just as the sun rises. I found neither, but I did find a magnificent cloud that looked like a very colorful tornado. I knew that it was possible to take a vertical panoramic photo with the iPhone, but I hadn’t found a suitable subject before. 
If I hadn’t stopped for coffee and a muffin I might have caught the crane family heading out, but not this day. Still, a good start to the day…
At Bayport you have a choice. You can be out in the park area with just the setting sun to focus on, or you can park in the other lot and peek at the sunset through the palms. For some reason I felt more like peeking. Just me and the camera…
