Total Eclipse

Oregon was lucky enough to be in the "path of totality" for the solar eclipse.  If we had stayed in Hillsboro we would have been able to see the eclipse at 99.6% of totality.  I thought this would be good enough and wasn't going to worry about the traffic and driving south 2 hours just to be in the path of total eclipse.  But, Katrina and Steve Doxey convinced me it would be worth it so I decided to drive down with them.  We left at 4:00 AM to miss traffic.  It only took us 1 1/2 hours to drive to Monmouth, Oregon and we didn't have any problems with traffic.   We parked our cars at a nice spot and all took a nap.  By 9:00 AM you could see a sliver of the moon as it moved in front of the sun.  It took until 10:15 for the sun to be completely covered by the moon.  At that point we could take off our cool solar eclipse glasses and look directly at the sun/moon.  It was amazing.  The temperature dropped, there was a 360 degree sunset in all directions, the sun looked like a glowing circle in the sky.  It only lasted 2 minutes but it was amazing!  Poor Hyrum had to work and so only got to view the eclipse at 99.6% and what a difference that made!  He wasn't able to take off his glasses because that tiny sliver of sun that was visible was so super bright.  He did get to see some cool effects of shadows from the eclipse but nothing like being able to take off our glasses and gaze into the sun...simply amazing!

Most of the group that drove down for the event.  Oma was with us as well as Steve's brother and some of his kids drove up from California.

The twins waiting for the total eclipse

The cool shadows the trees made during the eclipse.

Not my picture but this is what it looked like as the moon slowly moved in front of the sun.  It looked like Cookie Monster eating the sun:)

Also not my photo but this was what it looked like during the total eclipse.  So amazing and cool and fantastic.  I can't wait until I get to experience this again, it was so wonderful!

A friend of mine (with an awesome camera and great photography skills) took this photo of the entire eclipse.  She is amazing and the eclipse was amazing.

It did end up taking us about 4 hours to drive home because of traffic but I am so happy Katrina and Steve convinced me to go!