Coinciding with the 2020 pandemic, I moved to a new apartment. It was full of stress, and change, and pivotal time in life, all outside of the pandemic. I found myself in a new apartment that is just 640 feet from door step to toes in water.

Since that move, the daily routine of sunrise has changed quite a lot. In 2019, I estimate that I drove to my sunrise location no fewer than 355 times. While driving gave me the ability to get to a greater variety of locations each morning, I found it to be an added stress to drive each morning. There is a lightness is being able to walk out the door and be on the beach in just a couple minutes.

The proximity to sunrise that I now have, has its cons. Though I love that lightness, it’s also difficult to feel a new experience and capture a new composition in the place where you’ve watched countless sunrises.

And it’s pros. I now have such an intimate knowledge of this place. I know exactly where the tree root is that I used to trip over, and feel I could step over it while blindfolded now (ok, let’s not test that). I know who I’ll see at sunrise, I know exactly where the sun will rise, I know how quickly the leaves will fall, and where the geese and seagulls will congregate.

Am I left with only one question. Where does Shiras Park end and McCarty’s Cove begin? For my purposes, I believe it’s wher ethe culvet comes out at the end of Crescent Street.

The beach at Shiras Park feels like home as much as anywhere else. Of 1107 published sunrises, 21.9% have been from Shiras Park. This number will grow significantly as more of 2020 and 2021 sunrises are published.