The Green flash

Today was our first good rain in the North Bay Area. The clouds this afternoon were beautiful, and it made me hopeful for a beautiful sunset. I swear I am jinxed when it comes to sunsets- if I go out to photograph it, it's a solid meh, and if I miss it, I see everyone's phone pics of the insane sunset.
Mountain Goat and I are in the midst of some big (good) changes, and it's been draining to say the least. I told her that I was going to head out to try to get the sunset this afternoon, and she understood my need for a break and to connect with nature. I quickly packed up my gear, running further behind than I'd have liked (my modus operandi), and headed out to the coast. I knew I'd have to hit the first spot I could reach due to the timeline. The closer I got to the coast, the clearer the skies became, which is opposite how it typically goes.
I headed west along the Russian River and then north into the town of Jenner, where the sun's reflection shone on the windows of the buildings along the water, casting another bright reflection onto the river as I drove past, knowing I didn't have time to stop to capture that if I wanted to capture the sunset (and making a mental note to try to capture it another night soon!). I made my way to the pullout I know well, right at the mouth of the Russian (which has closed itself off again), just as the sun met the horizon. I quickly affixed my 70-200 zoom lens onto my camera body and stepped onto the berm along the edge of the pullout and snapped a few photos. As the sun disappeared, I switched my camera into high speed mode to try to capture the "green flash," a phenomenon I'd never been able to capture before. As the sun disappeared, I saw what I swore was the flash, and when I quickly checked my camera, I didn't see what I thought I'd see with a flash. I took a few more shots of my surroundings before I packed up and headed home.
When I got home, I started culling my images, and checked again to see if I'd caught the flash, and sure enough, I had. In fact, the flash appeared in a few shots as the sun sank, but was especially poignant right after the sun had set. Enjoy these shots!