Give us this day

My bread-and-butter run is the Early Morning 5-Miler with Eddie. Every weekday morning after sitting at my desk for an hour or two, usually between 5:30 and 6, Eddie and I trot down the driveway and out into the world for our daily constitutional.

Sometimes when I mention my morning runs to friends, they express astonishment or even (worse) admiration that Eddie and I are able to get ourselves out there every morning in every weather. I usually hem and haw over my response to this. I'll say something lame like, "It's fun!" or "We love mornings!"

But really, our morning run is nothing special. Certainly not deserving of admiration. I'm trying hard not to sound like a Nike ad here, but there's no better way to say it: we just do it. Every day. We don't think about it; we don't debate the merits of getting out versus staying in. We just walk down the driveway and start running. Folks seem to think it takes some sort of Herculean effort to get up and run. But it doesn't. It's our daily thing. Our practice. We cannot imagine life without it. Nothing could be easier.

Since it's fairly light now in the mornings, I brought the camera along with me to record our little trot through town. I had to take the photos quickly because Eddie doesn't like to stop. What we lack in the majestic mountain scenery of some of our blogging friends out west (hello, Alene) I think we somewhat make up for in quaintness. You take what you can get!

Here we are looking up and down the river east of the Drawbridge that cuts through the middle of town.

Looking back at the train bridge.


Looking straight across at the marina on the other side
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Looking toward town, you can just make out the drawbridge in the distance. (If you click on these photos, you can see them a bit bigger)


Reflective bench outside the Art Center. No time to sit!


Coming into town and crossing Route 1, we see the famous drawbridge. It will soon start going up once an hour to let the boats through. This messes up the traffic in downtown Mystic all spring, summer and fall
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A few shots of Gravel Street. You can imagine living here 150 years ago if you ignore the power lines. Sometimes the water rises and laps up onto the street. But not today.



This is the view from that house up there.


Ducks crossing Pearl Street. These ducks did not flinch when they saw Eddie.



Here is the Mystic Seaport at first light across the water. This will be teeming with folks all summer. But not yet.




The long stretch of River Road. This road goes on like this for about three more miles following the river as it twists and turns and eventually narrows into a small stream
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A couple of Egrets in the nest. I don't know how long they've been there. This is the first time I've noticed them. Good luck with the family!


The River Spirit is out again this morning blessing all the runners. Another rare sighting!


As we turn away from the river, it's uphill almost all the way home. This is great. Love running uphill. Here we are looking back down
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The first bit of color in early spring is yellow
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Give us this day our daily hill. We're halfway up.

Looking up.

Looking down.


Home sweet home.



Good dog, Ed!