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.
On our first morning at the beach, we had to wake up early to be down at the marina by 8:30 to leave at 9:00 for an eco-tour. We still had some time to enjoy the views of the sea from the nice condo Laura and Erik had rented for the week.
When we got to the marina, we had to wait a half hour until departure.
Luckily, our kids spotted a min playground in the middle of the parking lot, so we killed some time there.
Simon loves anything with a steering wheel, especially up high, because he likes to imagine he is flying an airplane.
Alice had a different idea of fun.
Finally, it was time to board the boat--a large pontoon boat that held maybe 40 people. Here is a description of the three hour cruise from their website:
Capers Wildlife Exploration
Enjoy a 3.5 hour boat excursion as we venture to Capers Island, one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier islands. We will cruise through winding tidal creeks to find diverse wildlife living in this salt marsh environment. Common sightings include bottlenose dolphin, osprey, pelicans, bald eagles, herons, egrets, and more. Along the way we'll employ various nets and habitat traps for an up-close look at some of the rarely seen marine creatures that thrive below the surface. As you arrive on Capers, you will have about an hour and a half to explore its pristine "Bone-yard Beach" and interior freshwater ponds. Capers provides excellent opportunities for shelling and bird watching.
The kids didn't really enjoy the boat ride that much, since they just wanted to get out and go swimming. Luckily, we finally arrived at Capers Island, and the kids headed for the water.
The kids loved playing on the beach, finding creatures, and sitting in the tide pools. But the best part was getting stuck in the muck. We'd even read a book about this very thing for the previous night's bedtime story.
Back at the condo that afternoon we had lunch, took naps, and checked out the beautiful pool surrounded by palm trees (which I forgot to photograph). It was high-tide in the evening and there was literally no beach, as the waves came all the way up to the dunes.
My good friend Laura, the randomly assigned OSU college roommate, soon a good friend and later a bridesmaid at my wedding, that I then reconnected with 10 years after we graduated college when she came to Raleigh to get her PhD at NCSU for 3 years (coincidentally having her office in the exact same building Zac worked in) and that, since she moved back to DC in 2014 I've had nearly weekly phone calls with....this person invited us to join her and her family (husband, 1.5 yr old daughter, 7 month old fetus) at the beach condo they'd rented on the Isle of Palms in the path of totality for the 2017 solar eclipse.
So Friday after afternoon, after packing in the evenings all week in small increments, we loaded up the van and drove for five hours to the South Carolina coast in hopes of seeing the sun's corona and experiencing this rare event in all its totality.
Traffic on the way down was not bad, and Simon whined a lot, but we made it ok with the help of lots of gummy fruit snacks. We will pay for this later in dentistry bills, I'm sure.
We arrived around ten pm, and poor Simon was on his last leg so that when we pulled into the resort area, he started crying and saying he wanted to go home. Getting him out of his car seat, holding him, and letting him push the elevator button that was the same number as his age (4) soothed him.
We soon got everyone to bed, because we had to wake up early the next morning to go on a boat ride that Laura had booked for everyone.
On Friday, Simon's daycare was closed, but it was my second day of class, and Zac was super busy at work, so I hired one of my former students, Kate Rhudy, (now graduated) to babysit him for the day.
She told me she taught him how to ride a bike. I didn't think much of it, but sure enough, Simon can now ride a bike!
Over the past week, we've been eating our supper out on the deck with some company.
First there was one vulture, then two, and one day there were three. They would spend time on our neighbor's roof, and sometimes hop over to ours. One day, when we were inside, one even landed on our deck.
I was playing around with my phone during the tedious feeding-Simon-his-bedtime-snack, and discovered a new feature in Facebook. (It's apparently just like SnapChat, which I don't use.) Anyway, the kids and I had some fun with it.
Although Alice really wants to play on the iPad in the morning, we have recently started prohibiting it. Because, lo and behold, kids will be creative when they're not being entertained. Alice has created some cool artwork lately. (For the record, Simon has very little interest in the iPad so far).
I'm not sure exactly why, but Simon has made it to the ripe old age of four without ever having a bowl of cereal. Zac gave him one this morning, and he ate it up.
Almost every evening, as soon as he gets home, Simon asks to go drive his car on the road. Usually we eat supper first, then let him spend the time between that and bednight snack cruising around the cul-de-sac. I just can't get over how cute he is in the little pedal car.
This week, Alice attended summer camp at the Method Rd. community center, near Simon's daycare (because I'm all about convenience.) After her first day, Alice said that "Oscar from my preschool" was there. Oscar's parents (who also have younger siblings still at the daycare) evidently made the same choice for a similar reason--it's all about making life just a bit easier.
Since I go back to work on Friday, Alice will go to camp for four weeks straight until her school starts at the end of August.
At this camp, based on the schedule, they do a different activity or game approximately every half-hour (which seems exhausting to me!). They have lunch, and snack, and two days a week go on a field trip.
