Sunrise Over Cape Cod Bay

I was staying in Provincetown to sing in a Saturday evening concert for the benefit of the Provincetown Soup Kitchen. I woke up before dawn on Saturday morning and drove to a convenience store for coffee. Then I decided that a sunrise walk out on the breakwater on the very tip of the Cape would be nice. The last time I'd taken that walk, I'd seen lots of fish, crabs, starfish, etc. in the water. This time, the tide was out and I saw mostly sand and stranded mussels. Still, anywhere on Cape Cod at sunrise is a spectacular sight:

I was not the only person who had decided that such a sunrise walk would be pleasant. A few other daring souls were out there hopping carefully from rock to rock, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells:

And looking back toward Provincetown center, I could see the Pilgrim Monument. It's an anchoring fixture in the tip-of-the-Cape landscape:

There wasn't much sea life visible except for seagulls and other birds. I was having a mostly quiet, contemplative experience beneath the newly risen sun:

Seagulls picked up mussels and dropped them on the rocks to crack them open. Then they'd eat the animal inside the shell. I got to watch this happen many times at close range, as seagulls are notoriously unafraid of people:

I tried to get a video of seagulls dropping mussels on the rocks but never got the chance. I did, however, record a seagull picking at an apparently dead starfish. You can hear the ever present wind:


The newly risen sun was spreading its warmth over the ocean and bathing everything in silvers and golds:

It was all lovely, but I was getting hungry. So I turned back towards dry land:

I got back into my little red car and drove to the only eatery in town open at that early hour. Normally, one avoids driving in Provincetown. It's too crowded, the streets are too narrow, the parking is too scarce. But at this hour, I was sure I could find a place to park:

I had a coffee and a breakfast burrito. I sat alone in the little restaurant except for the company of a brown bird, species unknown. It hopped around the floor picking at crumbs from the night before. He or she was good enough company: