Rise and Shine!

Places: Hawaii #7: See a sunrise above the clouds [Mt. Haleakala, in Haleakala National Park]

Confession time: I am not a morning person. Sure, I wake up at 6:00 AM every day and hit the gym before work, and I agree wholeheartedly that nothing beats the inner peace that comes from waking up early and being all alone in the world, but it takes me at least ten minutes of intense hatred of anything but my bed to get to this frame of mind.

However, I left my comfortable pillows far behind the morning we woke up at 2:00 AM in order to drive to the top of Mt. Haleakala. No matter; it was for a good cause. We had come to watch the sunrise above the clouds. Once we rolled out of the car, bundled in sweats and a warm blanket (you’d be surprised how cold it gets on a mountain at night), we fell into a world unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.