What a busy and amazing weekend I just had! Salem, OR was in the 100% zone for the August 21st total eclipse so I made plans a while back to go visit Hannah for a long weekend. Callie and her family decided to come too and we celebrated Weston's 2nd birthday on Sunday. There was a lot of hype and worry about traffic but I lucked out! I came on Saturday and there was no traffic and left Tuesday morning and made it home in 3 hours. Other people (including Callie) weren't so lucky... But enough about traffic... the ECLIPSE! What a crazy, amazing phenomenon! The kids got antsy as we waited the hour and a half or so for it to start happening, but once we got right before the total eclipse we got to see the "wiggle snakes" in a piece of white paper and witness the sky rapidly darkening. It started out as a weird "dim-ish bright" then went to twilight. The 2 minutes of total eclipse were amazing- I took some video, wish I had taken a couple photos. Isla got to see the sun and she's still talking about it (it got dark, everyone screamed, etc..) Then we saw the "diamond ring" and it was back to normal. It was fun to watch in a big crowd at the park by Hannah's house. Very festive! I can see why people get addicted to eclipse chasing! A lot of build up for such a short experience. I'd love to do it again someday.
All of the kids were great all weekend and we did lots of walking around and exploring parks. Salem allowed anyone to camp in any of the city parks so there were tents and signs all over. The birthday party was fun too! Complete with a pinata and delicious cake Hannah made. Great weekend.... and now I'm leaving for Maine in 2 days! What a way to finish off the summer!
