Maine is the first place in the United States to see the morning sun. In the winter here in the "far east," the sunrise can be especially intense. Sometimes, as in this photo, the sun shines straight upward through the clouds making a tube. It looks like a pathway to another planet or a conduit to a spaceship. I'm not much of an early morning person, but birds and sunrises can get me out of bed. I took this photograph from my deck having leaped naked from bed; it was 2 degrees farhenheit. "Beam me up, Scotty! There's no intelligent life down here."