By Scott Shephard

The time stamp on this photo is 6:22 AM, which explains the fact that Glenyce and Ibby are still wearing their PJs. This photo was taken on the first morning of our camping trip to Hartford Beach State Park in northeast South Dakota.

I am a person who gets up well before 6:22 and when there are four of you sharing around 90 square feet of space, it’s hard to move without waking people up - especially two children who are excited to be camping in a new place.

In our morning explorations on this day, we quickly made our way down to the water’s edge. We saw a pelican slowly drifting by and after that many more interesting things, including the unknown object Ibby is pointing towards.

Our camping trip last week was a success, though it ended sooner than planned, primarily because it got hotter than expected and because after 2 1/2 intense days, we had enjoyed most of what Hartford Beach had to offer.

Canon R5 1/320 sec f/7.1 ISO 400