totality

By I, Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

I have long been interested in solar eclipses.  When I was fourteen an annular eclipse cut across the United States, and I remember being disappointed that my entire experience with it was through a pinhole projector.

When I found out last year that an eclipse was going to be going through the area, I almost immediately told Golden that I wanted to see it, and I wanted the kids to experience it too.  This led to me researching for months the best possible place to see the eclipse.  We ended up going with one of Golden's friends, and bringing the kids she watches during the day, so this significantly affected which locations would be ideal.

I bought our eclipse glasses early, and we planned a trip to a park in Liberty, Missouri.  The morning of, we checked the weather forecast, and I steeled my nerves for disappointment as the weather did not look promising there, but it looked better than most of the other places I had been scouting out.

When we got to the park we had to sit in the car for 45 minutes while we waited out a rainstorm.  Then, just as the eclipse started, the clouds parted.  We got to watch the entirety of the eclipse from start to totality without any clouds blocking our view.  Then, within five minutes of viewing totality the sun was hidden behind clouds.

Totality was spectacular, and a completely different experience from watching the eclipse through eclipse glasses.  It's hard to describe, but the entire world sort of changes, and the thing in the sky looks completely different than we're used to.  Adding to the experience is the crowd around you getting excited as well.

I know several people who made a good-faith attempt to see totality, but missed out due to clouds.  And so, I feel just a little guilty and a lot fortunate to have been able to have this experience.  It's definitely been a bucket list item for me, and so I feel very privileged that at least this once I was able to experience this with the rest of my family.