Last sunset of 2009

I had to work on New Year's Eve, but luckily they let us out a bit early. So that left me with plenty of time to make a trip downtown in order to capture the final sunset of the year. Of course, the only flaw in the plan was that it was cloudy, so you couldn't see any sunset at all. Instead, here are some shots of the last time in 2009 that it got dark...

I had driven by the Old State House the night before and saw an idea for a shot, so I swung over there for a few minutes. The old building had a few Christmas lights strung out, including some along the old iron fence in front of the building.


I drove over to the building that replaced the Old State House - the current Arkansas Capitol building. It was getting dark, and the low clouds were changing to a deep blue.


And a few more shots of the capitol. It was a bit chilly out that night, probably in the upper 30s or so.



The small blue lights in the round windows under the dome spell out "PEACE," which is apparently something the capitol has done for decades now...



I drove a few blocks over and went up into a parking deck by the Bank of America Building. The Bank of America building is the one that puts up a large Christmas tree in lights on three sides of the building every year. This is the view from the top of the parking deck, with the Christmas tree reflecting in the side of the Union Bank Building. To the left is the full moon trying to break through the clouds. It was actually a blue moon...


After that I drove over to spend New Year's Eve at a friend's house in the party town of Cabot, where we partied like it was 1999 - or well 2009 I guess.

But getting a shot of the last sunset of the year is something I've been trying to do for the past few years. Here is the last sunset of 2007:


And 2008: