Solar Eclipse

Yesterday our family was able to witness a solar eclipse. I remember seeing a solar eclipse as a kid in 1994, however, this was Ryan's first. He was so excited to view this rare phenomenon. He did all the research for what times we had to be where. We didn't have any cool solar eclipse glasses that filter out the harmful rays of the sun from our eyes. So instead, we made a pinhole projector out of a shoe box in order to see the event.

Around 5:30 we headed down to the beach. We figured this would be the best place to view the eclipse so nothing would obstruct our view. We invited our close friend, Tara, and her daughter to come enjoy the evening with us. It was so much fun to play in the sand as the eclipse began and progressed. We were able to spend time as a family and as friends while once in awhile checking on the progress and being in awe each time.

 

When we arrived at the beach we were worried we wouldn't be able to see the partial eclipse because the fog was rolling in from off of the ocean. However, it provided the perfect amount of blockage of the bright rays so we could easily see it with sunglasses through the fog before denser fog would roll in front of it. Then a few minutes later, the sun and shadow would peek out again. And for the times when there was no fog, we used the pinhole projector to save our eyes.

By the time the moon passed in front of the sun as much as it was going to, Eliza was shivering and saying she wanted to go "night-night."  It was breezy and it was close to sunset, so we figured we would honor her requests and go home. When we got to the car, we wrapped her up in a spare blanket we had. As we were driving home, I asked her how she was feeling, to which she replied, "Nice." I love this girl! However, by the time we got home, she had absolutely no intention of going "night-night" and it took us another 2 hours to actually get her to sleep. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Regardless of when Eliza went to bed, we all had a great time watching the eclipse, Ryan more so than the rest of us.