Finally, it was Monday, the big day. It was forcast to be cloudy, so we were bracing ourselves for not being able to see much of the eclipse.
Alice, Annabelle, and Simon play on the balcony.
View of the condo from the dune area.
View of the dunes from the board walk. So many clouds!
That morning we staked out a place on the beach, just going in for lunch from noon to one. The eclipse started around 1:30. The beach was lively, but not overwhelmingly crowded. This is because it was low tide, so the beach was large. Also because the resort was in a gated area, so people couldn't really just drive in for the day, like in other areas.
Simon had fun launching mud balls.
The eclipse glasses worked well!
It was hard to see the eclipse with the glasses through the clouds, so we'd have a look every time the sun peaked out from behind a cloud.
It was great watching the eclipse from the beach, because the kids could stay occupied. Simon wasn't interested in it at all, and Alice only looked a few times. Honestly, it was a bit boring most of the time. But the party atmosphere on the beach was fun.
After their naps and lunch, Laura, Annabelle, and Erik joined us down on the beach.
Solar eclipse day selfie. We met in the fall of 1998, so we've known each other 19 years!
The kids all had great fun with the beach puddles Zac dug for them.
The following three videos show the beginning of the eclipse, around 1:30, and then right before totality, and then during totality (around 2:45 pm). Totality was really awesome, but I was a bit disappointed that it was too cloudy to see any of the cool effects with the corona. Next time!
A few minutes after totality, we packed up our beach gear, ran up to the condo, got showers, packed up all our stuff, and jumped in the van. There was a massive traffic jam to the one bridge going off the island, so that 10-minute trip took about an hour. Luckily Simon fell asleep right away and Alice stayed occupied with the iPad.
We took back roads for a while to avoid the traffic jam on 95. While still on the back roads, we had to stop frequently. Alice was having stomach distress (no progress on the first stop, poop on the second stop, third stop was an emergency because she was barfing.) Simon's water bottle also spilled and got him all wet, so we changed him in a McDonald's parking lot. We eventually got on the high way, and the traffic was heavy but moving. Luckily, after much whining, the kids eventually fell asleep again around 10pm.
We'd left around 4:30 and got home at 11:30. And we all had to go to work, school and camp the next morning. Next time we'll take Tuesday off too. But it was a fun adventure and worth the hassle.
