2017 Total Solar Eclipse
I have always tried to nurture a love of science and especially space with my girls. They love to play on NASA Kids Club building rockets and driving the Mars Rover. When I heard that there was to be a total solar eclipse in North America this August, I just knew we needed to go. Luckily, the closest point of totality to us was only 3 1/2-4 hours away. Salt Lake City was going to experience 94 percent but I wanted to experience totality.
So this weekend we packed up the car and drove to Idaho. Unfortunately, everyone else in the western United States thought the same thing. My husband and I thought about renting a camper but there weren't any available in the western United States. Most of the hotels were booked. I found a 2 star for $750 a night! No thank you.
I knew quite a few people who were going up and camping out in their extended family's backyards and many farmers decided to open up some space for people to set up for the night, but usually with no utilities. That wouldn't work for us since we would have both our babies with us.
Luckily, I found the Sun Shine Camp on Facebook. A woman decided to turn some of her dad's farm land into a camp ground and they had some vacancies. She had cleared the land and had port a potties dug and it was right in the path of totality. Not only that, but it was in the most idyllic spot.
I even risked an allergic reaction and joined in. The hour or 2 of itching after were totally worth it. Saddest day of my life when I realized I was allergic to horses. But that's a story for another time.
Lots of shade to sit out and relax. Aaralyn brought along a book of course. She's a girl after my own heart.
This was the first time we had gone camping with both babies. Needless to say, we got very little sleep and a VERY early wake up call.
Now it was time to pack up the site and get ready to watch the eclipse over the next few hours.
My husband was hoping to hop in the car right after the eclipse to hopefully get a head start on the aforementioned 300K other people but while packing the last few things in the car a few minutes before the eclipse he realized our car battery had died!
Luckily this Japanese family near us had a cordless car battery jumper. Have you seen these things? They are awesome. Tiny, and best of all if your car dies with no one around, you can now jump your car yourself. We totally bought one after this trip. What a life saver!
Next thing we knew, Bailey's beads appeared. Which is when all the mountains and valleys are backlit by the sun and it looks like little beads of sunlight shining on the edge of the moon.
Totality was awe inspiring. There really are no words to describe the feeling and visual. It got eerily silent and the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees immediately. It looked like there was a 360 degree sunset. It was beautiful. I am so glad we made the effort to go. I hope it will be something my children remember forever.
It was so worth the 7 hour trip home. Oh, and there was the cutest old lady standing in the middle of one of the back roads we tried to take out of there. Do you want to know what she was doing? Handing out hundreds of homemade cookies that she had baked and frozen just to hand out to us travelers. She was so excited and said it was the best day of her life. What a selfless act of kindness to show to so many people she had never met in her life and would most likely never see again. I mean just think of the hours and hours of baking. What an example. I want to be like her when I grow up. She definitely made our long, crawling trip back to Utah more bearable.
Did you see the eclipse?
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