Chasing Sunsets (or Maybe They're Chasing Me?!)

Last Thursday, Jacob had basketball training in Brighton so I decided Carter and I would stop at Trader Joe's a few minutes away in Pittsford and stock up on some of Jacob's stuff--he enjoys a few of their gluten-free items, particularly the muffins and the frozen mac and cheese.  I was hoping we'd have enough time after to stop at a playground right around the corner from training, at the fields where Carter played his last couple soccer games.  However, it was a cloudy evening and apparently sunset is coming earlier these days because it was getting dark by the time we walked out of the store.  I felt bad because I knew that meant the park was probably closed since most close at dusk.  We loaded up the car and headed out.  I had noticed when we came out of the store that there was a hint of pink in the clouds to the west, but imagine my surprise as we pulled onto the main road saw this!

The picture doesn't even do it justice, but it was so bright and vivid and looked like it was going to be an amazing sunset!  I pondered where we could go to catch a better view of it, and suddenly realized we were probably only a few minutes from Cobb's Hill, which is the best sunset view in Rochester.  I've gone there a few times before at the last minute--sometimes making it in time and sometimes not.  I was nervous this time since color can fade in an instant, but I shouldn't have worried--this one was in it for the long haul.  I barely had the time or brain power to tell Carter where we were going because I was so focused on getting there safely and efficiently before it faded.  When we finally got up on the hill and drove past the clearing with the best view, Carter was audibly wowed!  We drove past it to park and he immediately understood what we were doing there!  The view was incredible!

It was actually even more colorful than this--my phone camera couldn't really handle it, but it was amazing nonetheless. 

I desperately wished I had my real camera to have another option and more zoom capabilities, but I stopped carrying it with me full time so I had to make the best of it and be grateful for what I had!

Between the sky and the added bonus of the city lights (which are so much better than they used to be), it was really something to behold.

There were a lot of people there watching--I have a feeling that's the case many nights.  It's hard to predict good ones so I assume the second people see potential and live close enough, they go.  The funniest thing was that a woman walked by us as we were watching and she was like, "I just saw you at Pittsford Plaza!"  I think I remember her and her kids walking by us outside Trader Joe's when Carter was tying his shoe (or trying, anyway).  I think she had the same idea we did when she saw the sky!

It was definitely one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have ever seen, especially considering the view over the city, which is nice on a regular day or night.  And having lived three years in Geneseo with the valley sunset views and working high above Rochester with skyline views for 8-1/2 years, that's impressive for one to rank this high.  I tried to take a video of it to see if it would capture it better.  It does have the lovely sounds that accompanied the peaceful moment, but I'm not sure it did any better with the colors.

Luckily, we were able to take it in for probably about 10 minutes and there was still color, but we had to leave to get Jacob.  We were probably three minutes late, but it was well worth it!

The following night I had to make an evening run to Wegmans and this was my view on the drive home!

Again, it was so gorgeous!  I couldn't believe my luck to see them two nights in a row.  Of course, while this one would normally be a big deal, on the heels of the previous night it was just so-so...haha!

On Saturday we experience the sun back in its normal state!  We finally got back in the pool after a couple weeks of busyness and bad luck with weather or timing.  The water was actually pretty comfortable and we needed it considering it was super hot and humid!  Craig was still in California and Jacob didn't want to go in and tire himself out for potential training that night, so Carter and I went in ourselves.  It was lovely!

I hope someday we can get a deck and let this kid really get his jump on!

That night as I was cleaning up after dinner, I saw this!  Again, gorgeous!

It changed to more pink from orange as Carter and I stood there.  The clouds just looked so fluffy and cool!

On Monday night we found ourselves back in the same area as Thursday for Jacob's training, so we finally made it to the park that I mentioned earlier--the one where Carter played his last two soccer games.  We thought there were two playgrounds but it turns out there were actually three!  I realized at the first of Carter's two games there that we had actually been to that park before, all the way back when Jacob played lacrosse, and I vividly remembered going on the one playground with Carter.  Upon further investigation, it was back in 2016 when he was just three!  I remember it being one of the first playgrounds he really got into, where he could do a lot of stuff more independently and actually had fun with it.  We decided to start on that one even though we knew it was probably almost all too small for Carter now--and sure enough it was!  But I had a plan...I decided we should recreate some photos!

One of the things I remember best was him hanging on the rings.  Sadly, the rings were missing so we improvised!

My tentative bridge-walker is tentative no more!

He was jumping...

...and pretending he was trapped!

Before I had to look over the rock wall at him.  This time he was taller than the wall and made his way around the entire thing!

How has that sweet little boy gotten so big?!

It was quite the reminder how time is flying.  Not to mention how much I miss that sweet little guy, even if the big one is a lot of fun, too!  

We made our way to the back playground, the one we didn't know was there.  It was a pretty good one, with a taller rock wall, a steep slide and a couple interesting climbs to access the structure.

We had fun climbing and checking it out for a while, but I realized we were running out of time already!  We went to the third playground, which was actually pretty busy.
 

They had some challenging diagonal monkey bars and this tube slide with a window!

And once again, Carter is trapped, this time in the tube ladder!

It was time to go...except just as we arrived at the school, Jacob texted me to say he was staying for another half hour.  Ugh.  Carter and I walked across the parking lot and baseball field to the gas station.  He got a snack and we got a Slurpee to share, along with a Gatorade to bring back to Jacob who of course was instantly annoyed when he came out to the car and we weren't there because we were still waiting for him to text his beverage choice back.  Sigh....so much for trying to be nice.  As we pulled out of the school, I noticed the sky looked like it was on FIRE!  It was super bright orange and yellow through the dark rain clouds.  I knew Jacob wouldn't be down with a trip to Corn Hill this time, so I figured we'd just try to get a nice view from 390.  Well...I made Jacob the photographer and of course he took about 60 pictures with my phone, just to be annoying.  He literally hit the button twice per second before I caught him and told him to stop.  Half were blurry and most were still a bit far off.  This was the best we could do.

It was incredible and I was so bummed I wasn't able to get a better shot of this one.  The color coming through the clouds--with such a contrast--was amazing.  Despite this last minor disappointment, I couldn't believe my luck to see all of these gorgeous sunsets in a row.  Tonight's wasn't too shabby either--a nice set of wispy pink clouds.  All I can figure is the high humidity leaves too much moisture in the air, or maybe we just have some pollution or wildfire smoke moving through.  Whatever it was, I'm not sure I ever saw a better string of sunsets in my life!  I was quite a lucky girl over this past week, no doubt, and I hope these sunsets keep following me wherever I go!