SODUS POINT, N.Y. — A day that started with so much sunny promise didn’t quite turn out the way it was planned. Still, a crowd of solar eclipse watchers at the historic Lighthouse Museum in Sodus Point, along the shores of Lake Ontario, didn’t go home disappointed on Monday. 

The universe can work in mysterious ways, often captivating, sometimes spectacular — like when Monday’s main event poked its head above the Lake Ontario shoreline at sunrise. 

Still, there were questions.  

“It said, partly sunny, the sun is out and I am very hopeful,” said Kathryn Lifson, a vendor who sold total solar eclipse merchandise from a tent on Route 104 in Williamson. “Although it did say that there are some benefits to having cloudy weather.” 

Lifson came up from Pennsylvania to give watchers of the total solar eclipse the chance to buy a little something else to remember it by. She’s met people from all over. 

“It’s amazing,” she said. “People have traveled from afar. We’ve had people from California and Virginia and all over.” 

They’ve traveled far — to places like Sodus Point. Noel and Vicky Zerniak made the seven-hour trek from Maryland. 

“We’re here to see the dark side of the moon, baby,” said Noel Zerniak, standing next to the cardboard sign on his vehicle which said, “Eclipse or bust.” 

In much of New York state, including Sodus Point, the sun had different ideas. 

“I’ve been obsessively checking this weather forecast for here for the past six months,” said Jon Greenwalt, who drove up from Quakertown, Pennsylvania for his second eclipse. 

“It was just godly,” he said of his first eclipse, viewed in North Carolina. “It was amazing.” 

Even with clouds in the forecast, there was no turning back. 

“When reservations are concerned and money is involved you have no choice but to go where you already planned,” he said 

We say the universe can work in mysterious ways. But really, there’s nothing mysterious about a cloudy day in upstate New York in early April. 

“I’m disappointed with the cloud cover,” said Pat Rourke, who made the trip from Scotia, near Albany. “What are you going to do?” 

“It’s a very cloudy day,” said Greenwald. “We were able to see a few glimpses of the sun through the clouds. It’s a little fuzzy.”