A Wonderful Vacation Experience: Where the Sun Always Rises

Looking back during our vacation at our cousin’s town house in Danao where the residence is situated along the shorelines of the maiden sea.
“Get up! Get up!” my mother whispers. My eyes flash open in the predawn gray. Sleepily, I look around the screened-in porch of our family’s doorstep cabin, where we usually spend our good times together. My face feels the coolness of the early-morning air.
I relax and curl deeper beneath the blanket’s warmth.
“Get up!” my mother whispers again. “The sunrise is glorious!” Careful not to let the door slam, as she sets off down to prepare breakfast.
Get up to see the sunrise? The last thing this 16-year old wants to do is leave a warm bed to see the sun rise. It’s freezing out there.
My 19-year old brother pushes back his covers and sits up. I make a supreme effort and struggle out too. We grab my father’s fatigue blankets and wrap them tightly around our cotton pajamas. Our pace is quick. One of us misses catching the door. It slams.
Gingerly, we pick our way over slippery rocks and prickly pine needles, down 14-dew covered long steps to the shore. We catch our breath and look up. Across the sea, a sliver of brilliant red crests the top of the shadowed houses. It silhouettes our mother on the lake shore, busily washing the rags on the cold morning sea.
Hues of lavender, rose and amber begin to pulsate in the sky. High above, in the soft blue, a lone star still sparkles. Silver mists rises gently from the lake. All is still.
Suddenly, the curve of a brilliant sun bursts through the darkened sea. A blue bird rises from a distant shore and gently fans its way over the water. Two other birds make a rippled landing near our place, while a small one skims along the edge of a nearby island, hunting its morning food.
We watch intently as the rich colors of the sunrise soar into the sky. It isn’t long before the lake awakens the flap of a blue bird’s wings and the melodic call of the loon.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” I whisper. I felt my brother was uttering the same words too. Before long, we grabbed the tails of our frayed blankets and felt the gush of the sunrise breeze.
We watched the swirls of pearl mist rise and the graceful glide of another bird high overhead. Our faces warm in the early sun.
Breathing the chill air, the two of us draw our blankets closer. At last, the soft hues of dawn turn bright with the new day. The star fades. My brother and I take one more look and race back to bed.