Sunrise to Sunset: NYC to SF

#30

So how did #30 become the last goal on my list? Well when I was googling ideas, I saw this and really liked the idea of seeing the sunrise and sunset on two different coasts in the same day. Our country is pretty cool and the two coasts are definitely different, seeing the sunrise in New York City and watching the sunset over the Pacific really appealed to me. Since it was #30 on my list, it actually would have been a really cool way to finish off my list—a grand finale if you will. But my birthday is on Thanksgiving, and spending that day on a plane didn’t sound that great to me. Another thought was to go in June. I mean when else can you guarantee the sun will actually be out on both coasts, but the middle of the summer?

Well neither of those options happened. My brother Zach decided he was going out to Napa to hang out with our cousin Tyler for a bit, and I figured I’d tag along. And that is what I did. Zach made his way from Nantucket to NYC to accompany me on my goal. We would see the sunrise in NYC and then fly to San Francisco to see the sunset.

So as I was thinking about accomplishing this, I was trying to come up with a theme. Do I do ocean to ocean? Maybe skyline to skyline? Or iconic bridge to iconic bridge? I decided Rockway, Jones, and Long Beach was too far to travel and then get to the airport—I was flying out of JFK, and Zach out of Laguardia. I thought bridge to bridge was the best option, but also representative of the 2 coasts.

Now my next concern was weather. As with any other time I’m going on vacation, I’m stalking weather.com to make sure I’m packing correctly (mostly to make sure I have the proper running gear). Well NYC looked promising… sunny, but cold. Now California, unfortunately, was becoming an issue. I thought NYC was going to pose the problem. I mean it is February. With my luck, there’d be a blizzard. But nope, NYC was cool….however a storm decided to hit the west coast. Not cool. But I was still optimistic.

So Wednesday morning rolled around—5am to be exact. Not an ideal time to wake up on your first day of vacation, but I had a goal to check off. We made our way on the subway and got to the Brooklyn Bridge in record time. The sunrise was beautiful and freezing—29 degrees to be exact. Very quiet. But nice. We enjoyed the sunrise with a few other New Yorkers who were running along the FDR (talking about the upcoming Al Gordon race in Central Park) and doing Tai Chai. After the sun came up and we took a few more pics, we made our way back on the subway with the rush hour crowd and got to our perspective airports.

Many hours later, we find ourselves in San Francisco. Our cuz Tyler picked us up and we made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. My younger brother and cousin were definitely humoring me, but all in good fun. We went to the south side and the sun wasn’t going to set over the bridge. So then we made our way to the north side. No luck. Well my bridge-to-bridge theme was a bust. Now it was time to readjust. We instead made our way up the hills of Fort Baker to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. It was actually a nice adjustment. Very pretty views of the ocean, and of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Fran behind us. And I got lucky with the weather. Yeah, it was still a bit chilly—about 20 degrees warmer than NYC—but windy, with no clouds. Just as the sun was setting, a cloud appeared, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

 

I’m happy to say I have successfully checked #30 off my list. Especially now that is has rained in Napa for the last 2 days…