When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
~John Muir~
You guessed it . . . I live in a part of Idaho that had, eclipse totality! I can't even begin to tell you the feeling I had when totality happened . . . it's one of those things that just make the hair on your arms stand straight up, it was amazing, awe inspiring, emotional, almost a spiritual experience. Need I say more. My son said it best when during totality he exclaimed, "I just got the hee bee gee bees".
Of course, everyone was worried about the weather, but it was perfect. The night before the eclipse we had a few clouds, and I was nervous. This is a photo of the sunset, it was really pretty, but iffy right?!
And that mornings clear blue sky! The sun was really showing off, I think she was getting ready for her outstanding performance!
We were all a little nervous, seeing how we had never seen a total eclipse! I remember seeing several partial eclipses, but this was new and exciting, and something I most likely will never experience again! We all dawned our eclipse glasses, which are so flattering, especially over your own glasses . . . :0) and started watching. It was hard to get a photo of the partial eclipse, because you had to have special filters on your camera, even on your cell phone. I cut out one of the lenses from the eclipse glasses and taped it to my cell camera . In the photo below, you can see a little half moon reflection near the bottom of the photo, that is what I was really seeing. Every photo that I, or anyone else here took, had this little reflection in it. It had something to do with the way the reflections were bending or something, I'm clearly not a scientist, but I thought it was interesting. My cell phone camera wouldn't capture the partial eclipse it's self, I think it was just too bright.
Seriously, like fathers like sons. These guys were anxiously waiting for the big moment, looking very relaxed I might add.
Chris, Diana and Clara, all very excited and waiting for totality. It seemed like it took forever!
Of course we had trained Cole ahead of time, to never look into the solar eclipse, he's such a good boy . . . ;0)
Jessica and her family didn't want to fight the traffic, so they stayed home. You can see they were very creative in their solar glasses design! She wanted to make sure that there were no accidents or blindness . . . very cute, although they do look a little like aliens!
Finally, TOTALITY!! It was just crazy, I can't even express how weird it made me feel. I can totally, (pardon the pun), see why people travel thousands of miles to see this amazing natural phenomenon!
This was beautiful! If you look in the lower right-hand corner of the photo below, you can see a star. Yes, you could see the stars it was that dark. It looked like twilight . . . crazy! And it was cold! I think the temperature was about 77 degrees when we started looking at the eclipse, and at totality, it was around 66 degrees. Clara noticed it right off the bat. When they arrived at our house, she said she was cold, by that time it was maybe a quarter of an eclipse, and it just kept getting colder as the moon moved across the sun.
I will most likely never see anything quite like this again in my life, but can I just tell you that I would travel a long way to see it again... :0)
This is what the horizon looked like right when it started. It was such a strange feeling.
This is a photo that my daughter sent to me. It's the horizon at her mother-in-laws house. They live further North of me, so they had totality a little longer. Thank you Sheri!
It wasn't long before the sun started peeking out again . . . we didn't want it to end so quickly, but it was amazing how much light we had when just a tiny portion of the sun started shining through.
It was truly a magical day! After the eclipse we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, made fried zucchini and french fries with our abundance of zucchini. Diana brought her famous, Frog-Eye salad and for dessert we had chocolate zucchini cake with ice cream. Amber and the kids ventured over in time for dessert - it was an amazing day, and one that I won't forget anytime soon.
Hugs
and Love,
Barb
7 comments:
Very cool! My niece is one of those who traveled to Tennessee to experience the total eclipse. It was only about 60 % here. I have enjoyed reading about other's experiences, but I did not even attempt to sneak a peek. Glad that you had the proper glasses!
Hi Barb, If I had only one word to describe this experience you all had, it would be "Awesome"! How Great thou art was playing, I am thinking "how appropriate for this special occasion!" Thank you once agin for the music, I am so glad to see you are posting more. I am trying to get back to blogging, it is hard when you stay away!~smile~
Blessings,
Sue
We got about 93 percent totality here in the Seattle area. Some friends of ours drove down to Oregon to see 100% totality and he described it just like you did. He was SO glad they made the drive down and he said he'd do it again in a heartbeat! It got a lot colder here too but not as dark. Such a cool thing to witness!
Oh, this was such a fun post! You all do know how to throw a good party. This Eclipse party is the best everI would have loved to have been in Idaho for this one. I'm afraid, we just get to enjoy the photos. Roger and I didn't ever get glasses for ut and then places werer running out of them and we didn't have time to stand in line. We didn't get the Totality but I think it went well. Roger did try to get a selfie shot with the sun in the background which didn't really show much.
I think we will just enjoy the awesome photos you took and say we are lame for not getting into it all.
I loved your photos. The sunset the night before is a spectaular one. I just loved them all. I loved your big boys enjoying the moment. Jessica's kids photos were awesome. It just sound like the best of celebration and I do think it is a spiritual moment. The prophecies say there will be signs and wonders for heaven; this is one. I think the fact that it was pretty cloudless on the totality path; which is a miracle in my book.
Love and hugs for you all! Thanks for the thoughts and photos; fantastic!!
Oh Barb how truly amazing!! Watching it in Washington was super cool even though it never got dark but yes the temperature dropped and the inside of my house was dark even with the shades open. I felt the same way you did, but can only imagine the 'totality' you guys in Idaho saw. My son and family live there and they experienced the same as you. Talk about travel, they rented their house to a family traveling from Virginia just to see the eclipse. I was in Idaho the week before but really didn't want to have to deal with the traffic - maybe I should have thought differently and went anyway. It was truly spectacular! I love the clever paper plate lens wear!!
Hi Barb! I'm happy to meet you today! I saw your blog post about totality, and wanted to see your pictures... we live in Idaho too, but we did not get totality here, even though it was pretty spectacular to witness, because it did get darker here. It was an amazing event, how wonderful to celebrate it so wonderfully with your family! We live in northern Idaho, and I'm guessing you must be somewhere in southern Idaho. Nice to meet you today :)
Barb - The "Sun" showing off photo is absolutely amazing. It can sit close beside the eclipse. Aweness for sure! Wasn't it fantastic to actually witness the totally of the eclipse. It was so strange and wonderful at the same time. It's something that would be hard to explain to someone who did not have the opportunity to see it as we saw it. It was so much, much more than just getting dark. Thanks for sharing it from your little corner of the world!
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