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Creative Eclipse Title

I said the 2024 North American Eclipse deserved its own post, so I must follow through. Unfortunately, the words eclipse and glimpse don't actually rhyme, so you're left with a lame title.

Logan gets ten thousand gold stars for getting the eclipse on our radar and encouraging us to travel a few hours to the path of totality (it would be 96% totality at home). Rick and I are poor planners regarding sightseeing and impromptu adventures, and I know we have missed out on some really cool experiences because of indifference. Actually, it was not indifference, but more likely, we were living life in survival mode--raising babies and keeping up with responsibilities.

Take the 2017 eclipse as an example. Little Gavin and I had driven Emily from our home in Tucson to Provo to help her move into her first college apartment. During the eclipse, Gavin and I were at Target getting necessities while Emily was somewhere else checking other to-do items off our list. The sky turned greenish, and birds stopped chirping. An apocalyptic chill swept across the parking lot, and I was like, "What's going on?" (Can you believe I had NO clue?). Since I didn't have proper solar glasses, I didn't point out the phenomena to two-year-old Gavin, who would probably burn his baby eyeballs to crispies. My poor planning left me with no choice but to pretend nothing was happening as I continued my first-kid-going-to-college duties.

So, yay for Logan telling us that Pennsylvania was in the path of totality and asking us if we would watch the eclipse with them if they flew to visit us.

We booked an Airbnb near the Canadian side of Niagara Falls (nobody in our family except Logan had been to the falls). We took the kids out of school and experienced a delightful long weekend together.






On the day before the eclipse, the sun was out, the weather was warm, and the crowds were plentiful as we explored the falls. Any cool pictures I post of the falls were probably sent to me by the kids because Logan gave a few tutorials on using long exposure on an iPhone.













Eclipse Day dawned with overcast skies and a chill in the air. We packed a picnic lunch and headed to the falls again.


We found an open spot in the grass to eat our lunch and get our sillies out while waiting for something big to happen in the skies.

The weather was cold, and it felt like a cruel joke after the warm day before. While waiting, some of us snuck away from our place in the park to find indoor warmth.

When we heard oohs and ahhhhs outside, we knew it was our cue to return and look.

It was fun to hear the cheers from the crowd across the river as the sun briefly broke through the clouds at short intervals. The whoops and hollers moved with the clouds like a spectator wave at a baseball game. At totality, the city lights turned on, and silence filled the space. The seagulls, who just moments before had been hunting leftover picnic items, went home to their evening roosts. The sound of the falls felt both peaceful and threatening in the quiet.


The darkness lifted as quickly as it came. People packed up and went back to their normal lives. The traffic getting out of the parking lot was the worst of the whole trip—maybe 30 minutes. Getting back home to the United States the next day was a breeze. 

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