The light was especially beautiful this morning, multilayered and constantly changing. When I arrived at the nearly-empty parking lot of the Albany Bulb, a rain storm had just past and the bay had that expansive sense of newly parted clouds. A smattering of dawn’s colors remained at the bridge and the city; shimmering water in between.

As Arwen and I were creeping into the cold, the sun, golden and glowing, emerged from behind heavy dark clouds and cast its warmth on the bay and the bulb. 

We swam longer than we planned to—37 minutes in 52 degrees—Perhaps we were mesmerized by the pulses of silver and metallic greens on the water, the shifting, swirling clouds above us.