Sunrise: Normandy Beach, NJ; May 4, 2014, 5:52AM

I had considered and rejected the idea of getting up for sunrise photos this Sunday. I was exhausted after a weekend of celebrating my niece and her new husband, and making the concordant travel, and general busy-ness. After the wedding, we visited two friends who have a beach house in Normandy (to extra-clarify, Normandy Beach NJ, not France), which was near the general area of wedding festivities. Awesome, right? A few days with the fam, and then a groovy night with friends. What could be better? We (as in George, said groovy friends, and I) wandered around a few different boardwalks, had some beers (including my first summer shandy of the season, joy!), found a nice bar in which we watched the Kentucky Derby (sorry, Wicked Strong, I was rooting for you!), then went out for dinner and stuffed ourselves silly. I am one of those people who needs downtime in order to recharge my batteries. I had none. I was beat. Sleep was my objective, not early rising.Fate had other plans.Something--and I swear, I don't know what--woke me up at 5:20. And you know, you start to weigh options and make bargains. "If it's even a little cloudy, I'm going back to sleep."It was clear.OK, OK. "If it's windy and cold, I'm going back to sleep."It was surprisingly warm(ish), and not windy at all.Pffft. Hmm. OK. "If George isn't willing to go with me, I'm going back to sleep." (Please note: I'm not sure why that was important to me at 5:30 in the morning, but it was.)George got right up and started getting ready to go. Bless his heart.So, bejacketed and bleary-eyed, we walked five minutes up the road to the beach and climbed the newly installed sand berm to the much-beleaguered Jersey shore, and watched the sun come up. While I hesitate to say that something is "magical" because really, anyone who says that is hopelessly twee, I've got to say...I'm really glad I was there. The sunrise went a little like this:So. There you have it. Sunrise, Jersey shore style. There's still so much work to do down there after Hurricane Sandy, but you know, lesson learned. This world of ours keeps on rolling along, and so must we.Here's a little Ellis Paul to play you out.[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJafGS6tWI&list=PL4aMGBlfhsIQBhkuJ6S35Y0Fvt2X2Faku&index=1]