What We Did for the Eclipse

August 21, 2017 was the Great American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse with areas of totality across the United States.  Where we live it was 90% totality so we know a lot of people who stayed in the area to watch.  We decided to drive the 4-5 hours to Idaho to be in the path of totality.
We know a lot of people who traveled to Rexburg to watch.  That was our original idea.  Jeremy kept checking the weather and it looked like it might be a bit cloudy that day so we planned on going somewhere else, still in the path of totality.  Before we left, Jeremy checked the weather again and it looked like it was going to be clear in Rexburg, but we had already decided where we were going to watch the eclipse from so we went with that plan.
A lot of people staggered their trips to Idaho over several days to beat the traffic so with us leaving home at midnight Monday morning, we didn't have any traffic problems.
We drove to Mackay, Idaho, and parked at a park.  We slept in the van for a few hours while it was still dark.  When we finally woke up, we had access to bathrooms and a playground.

A lot more vehicles joined the ones that were already there by the time we got up.  It was really fun to be around so many other people who traveled there for this purpose.

This is what it looked like all around the park- vehicle-wise.

It was an amazing experience.  We kept checking with our solar glasses to see when the moon started crossing in front of the sun.  Just a teeny tiny bit at first then of course it continued.

It lasted for quite a while so we had fun taking pictures.  All of our kids did a good job of following directions.  We only looked at the sun with the solar glasses so nobody had any eye damage after it was all over.  During the main part, Lucky had fun doing activities in his activity binder so we worried about him a lot less.  He did look up with his solar glasses from time to time of course.

For extra protection for the two youngest, Jeremy cut out paper plates to attach to the eclipse glasses so there were no worries about seeing over the edges.

 Mom:  You look really comfortable, Jr. Jr.

Jr. Jr.:  Trust me.  I am.

Jr.:  Jr. Jr. said that the sun looked like a crescent and then he called it a crescent sun.  I'm a crescent son, too.

Jeremy had an app on his phone to let us know when to look for certain things (crescent shadows, shadow bands, different animal behavior, 360 degree sunset in the morning- with stars).  It also told us when we could safely take off our solar glasses and look directly at the sun's corona with the naked eye.  Amazing.

It really was an amazing experience.  After the totality part, as it got lighter again, the kids went to play some more on the playground.  Jeremy and I carried our glasses around with us to keep looking at it from time to time.

By the time we left the park, most people had already left even if part of the moon still blocked part of the sun.  Jeremy drove the van so I was able to watch the very end of the eclipse out the window.
What a neat experience.  Then of course, there was the traffic.  Everyone staggered going into Idaho, but everyone left around the same time to go home.  We heard the traffic was crazy and took so long for people traveling from Rexburg (5 hours to travel what is normally less than an hour).  Because of where we watched from, the traffic wasn't nearly as bad.  We missed all the Rexburg/Idaho Falls traffic.  There were police directing traffic where two highways met up along where we were traveling.  By the time we got to I-15, the traffic was a little bit slower- some stop and go, some 20 MPH in the 80 MPH speed zone.  Not too much, though.  All in all, with traffic and bathroom breaks, we only lost about an hour according to what the GPS said was going to be our arrival time when we left Mackay.  I'm very happy it turned out that way since the kids had school the next morning.  We didn't get home too late- not like our trip home from Montana (3am.  It's a good thing our children are in general such good travelers).

It was fun to see how many of the vehicles were prepared for traffic.  Lots of them had gas cans, some two or three, attached to their backs or roofs.  We got gas as soon as we got into Mackay so we wouldn't have to worry about it on the way out of town.  We actually made it all the way home on one tank of gas.  I was expecting we'd have to get gas at least once but as I mentioned earlier, the traffic wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

It was a unique experience.