Sunrise Over the Golden Gate

I sound like a broken record when I excitedly talk about the sunrises and sunsets in California, especially the sunrises in Marin, and most especially in Sausalito. That record sounds so good, so it’s no surprise it gets played over and over and over again. Whether it’s the sunrise I witness every morning off my balcony or if I decide to make the journey, the sunrise over the Golden Gate Bridge, it is truly magnificent. If you’ve never seen it, there’s not much in the Bay Area that I would recommend over seeing a sunrise here.

And so it was that this particular morning, I decided to drive up Conzelman Road past Vista Point towards Hawk Hill to record a time-lapse of the sunrise looking down into the the Golden Gate Bridge from the highest vantage point in viewing it. It was 5:30 AM, and while dark, the oranges were creeping above the horizon to overtake the blues.

Unfortunately, the drive was cut short three quarters of the way up, as the gate past the turnaround to get to the peak was closed. Disappointed yet undaunted, I drove back down to an area just one spot west of Vista Point, and camped. It was 5:50 AM.

As I affixed my iPad to the post to start the time-lapse, I noticed a gentleman was flying a remote control camera called the Insight 4. At $3000, the battery would last twenty straight minutes and he could take aerial footage (in this case of the bridge) easily a mile out from where we were standing. He was filming a documentary about a man who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and lived. I immediately thought of my encounter, meeting Hector a few months before.

The air is peaceful at this time of day, the sounds plentiful waking up to what today has in store for the city. The promises of what may yet come have not been delivered. And it’s up to us whether they come to fruition, or whether fate will have a hand in changing the course of the day. The possibilities are endless, the myriad of choices of what may yet be presented before us, even more so. It’s exhilarating and liberating to recognize that we have control over a huge part of what happens to us on any given day, accept what we cannot control, take actions to control what we can. And certainly, our attitudes on everything we do, think and feel each day as we start becomes a huge part of our reality.

I reflected upon many things. My thoughts were dominated by one person in particular.

By 6:50 AM, I was back on the road heading home, the day not yet begun but already so fulfilled.

Today is going to be an amazing day.