Sunrise 3 (Columbia Tusculum, Rookie Mistake, and Flying Pigs)
This morning turned out to be waaay better than I first imagined. I hadn’t planned on getting up early this morning, thinking I’d take the weekends off so I could sleep in. Amanda already had plans to get up early and go to her running club meeting (they’re all training for the flying pig half and full marathon) so I decided to take advantage of this and get up as well. Since I had the entire morning open (uhh the weekend is awesome!), I thought I’d try and go to Lunken Airfield and find an advantageous spot to see the sun rise, after all the airfield is in the valley and generally points east. Saturday Morning Exploring, if you will. The airfield is in the river valley that Ault Park’s Heekin Overlook looks down into. As I started on my way, however, I started to feel a bit rushed because I didn’t know exactly where the best spot would be and I was kind of afraid of missing the sun rise. One thing I didn’t really expect before starting this was exactly how pink the sky gets about 15 minutes before the sun rises. It really opens up in beautiful colors. Even if you’re staring at your watch, knowing you’ve got 15 minutes to get to Lunken Airfield, the sky’s colors can make you think your watch is slow! I ended up exploring the culs-de-sacs along the eastern hills to get a feel for where the eastern facing ledges were, afraid of missing it if I made the entire trip to Lunken. Most of the pockets are actually west-facing, so they have absolutely breath taking views down the Ohio River, with the city skyline on the horizon, and of the sunset. Views of the sun rise were surprisingly difficult to find. It really made me appreciate how awesome Heekin Overlook is.
I found myself looking down a heavily wooded winding, quiet, and steep road. I go to grab my trusty camera to document this sight, and what do I find? I find that my camera’s battery is dead. I left it plugged into my computer and forgot that cameras are the one thing that still hold onto their ancient roots by not charging over usb (they remain a “camera” primarily with a stand-alone battery, and it just so happens that they allow usb access. No charging over usb allowed!). Frustrated by my rookie mistake, I at least felt relieved that I could still document the sun rise with my camera phone on my 4-year old LG 9900. Quality isn’t that great (especially in low light), but it does the trick. In the top picture and the one below, it may look like the sun is up but thats just the atmosphere playing tricks with my head.
(More after the jump; be sure to check out mr. snail at the end) (more…)
Ault Park Sunrise 