Ever since we experienced a total eclipse in Oregon in 2017, we have been planning for the one in 2024. The path of totality went right through the country, from Texas (where John is from) to Vermont (where I'm from) and beyond. A chance to share it with family, how could we not?
I flew up to visit Mom in Vermont, where it's always iffy whether you'll be able to see the sky on any given day (especially in the spring). It snowed there the week before, for example. Happily, the forecast was for a nice high pressure system and probable clear skies, and we got mostly that. Only a thin high cloud layer, nothing too intrusive on our eclipse viewing.
Mom also figured out that we had seen a total eclipse together once before, when I was less than a year old. Mom and Dad drove us out to the tip of Cape Cod where totality barely nipped the coast (imagine the crowds out there if that happened today!) I don't remember anything about the day, but I'll take it, as it makes "3" for my total lifetime total eclipse count.
Mom and I debated driving north to get closer to the mid-point of totality. We could get an extra minute of darkness if we wanted to try. In return, we'd probably spend a lot of time on the road (possibly late into the evening). We decided it would be a nicer experience if we just walked out of her house and found a hill to watch from.
Mom found the perfect place! We strolled over to a closed golf course, joined the "throngs" (not really!) of eclipse watchers and set up a chair. There were other people here and there, and there was so much room and so few people that everyone had plenty of space. As you can see, this was an ideal spot:
Plus we had views of mountains in all directions:
Camel's Hump is starting to get dark as we approach totality:
Neither of us can see the camera but somehow I managed a silly selfie:
Mom had no idea why we carried a colander from the house, and she said she was glad it was inside her backpack so she wouldn't get questioned by other people we passed on the way. It turns out our 2017 science talks came in handy yet again. The circular holes in the colander make crescent-shaped shadows when the sun is partially covered, a fun phenomenon:
Getting close!
And... it was dark (mostly)!... we heard a confused dog barking in a nearby house, the people around us cheered, some lights went on in the distance... it's happening!
Yay for an amazing day with Mom!
There are many, many better photos than this out there on the interwebs:
As soon as the sun peeked back out from the other side of the moon, I turned on "Here Comes the Sun" and we danced and smiled. Even a pair of women nearby joined us in the celebration. Mom tells me that this song played on the radio at the same moment during my first eclipse and we decided it would be a fitting tribute and a way to imagine that Dad was joining us in the happiness :)
Meanwhile (or actually, earlier in the afternoon) in Texas, John got to share the day with family and friends. Their weather forecast had been way worse than ours, but they also got way lucky with blue skies and only a few clouds. Yay for eclipse luck in both places!
Hello y'all!
I love this picture Danny took of John's parents:
The solar production chart from the Beard Farm, with a telltale dip in the middle of the afternoon:
That was so totally worth it (pun intended), thank you universe!
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