"Wake up everyone!"
Grunts and groans followed from our two room family tent that resembled a yellow submarine. "It's 4 am!"
"I know, but we have to hurry to see the green flash over the Atlantic Ocean."
I wish I could say this only happened on one occasion during one vacation, but I was on a quest to find the green flash I had read about years before. So, every year and on every day of every vacation, I dragged my family to the beach at sunrise in search of the green flash.
Now, the children are grown so on my birthday, they all flew to spend two weeks with us in St. Vincent. Together, we stood on the leward side of the island at sunset looking west over the Caribbean waters and saw the green flash.
Though it lasted only a few moments, the long-awaited sight was surprising, beautiful and intrinsically satisfying.
Okay! So I had it wrong; the wrong time of day, the wrong direction, the wrong sea from my standpoint, but I meant well. I wanted to see a rare spectacle of nature.
Next, I would like to see the fire rainbow! "Come on kids, we only have to find cirrus clouds at 20,000 ft, with just the right amount of ice crystals, and the sun shining through it at a 58 degree angle."
As much as I'd love to see a fire rainbow. I'm not waking up at 4am to see any more imagined wonders of nature.
Such fun memories. I'm glad you finally saw the green flash. I still missed it even though I was staring at the spot without blinkng. But it was fun. :) Next quest: to finally see a real whale.
You chased all over the world with your children looking for the green flash and finally found one. Now it is time to chase all over with your grand children looking for fire rainbows.