Look at this cute little Jersey budgie taking a shower! He loved it. Was pet sitting for 🐦 Sky Blue Designs LLC 🐦 and Robot Bastard! while they went to see the eclipse. I love budgie sounds!

Even right up to totality it looked darker… but then it got weird. Wow. I’ll never forget that as long as I live.
Very special thanks to Mike for saying “let’s go” and sticking with it. This was totally worth the trip and readjustment. Best. Chase. Ever! (17/18)

People started leaving, so we gave up and walked back. But we stopped along the way when the sun peeked out to see more of it returning.
It was an incredible experience. Someone had said that there’s a difference between 99.9% totality and 100% and they were right! (16/18)

A small sliver of the sun appeared, and it was time to put on the glasses. The tiny crescent of sun reappeared, and the sky brightened again. No kidding, five minutes later the clouds rolled in. You couldn’t see the eclipse anymore. (15/18)

It was plenty of time to soak in the moment. I hadn’t heard or seen any birds or animals before or during, so I’m not sure if anything changed.
Then the sky looked like a 360° sunrise, kind of yellowish and blue. (14/18)

It was *dark* Venus appeared to the lower right of the sun. I alternately looked at the sun, sky, horizon, other people, and Mike. It also got very cold. I’m not sure if it was the eclipse or the wind off Lake Erie behind a cold front. Four minutes seemed to last forever! (13/18)

Then I saw an orange streak to the lower left that got bigger and string-like. That’s not where the moon would depart. It was a solar flare!! (Later confirmed!)
Everything was surreal. You could see, but it was almost like night. Colors were vibrant but somehow different. (12/18)

The sun was obscured by clouds off and on, but it was looking better. The moon covered more and more of the sun. Clouds were moving out. It got darker. Then you could see a darkness approaching on the horizon. (9/18)

Cleveland was getting cloudy on the satellite again. We stopped for McD’s and arrived at the beach just as the eclipse started. We got one of the last parking spots on the side of the road and wandered out to Lake Erie to join a few hundred people who had gathered. (8/18)

Something said beach, so I found a few beaches and picked Orchard Beach just northeast of Erie because it sounded pretty and Mike had never seen any of the Great Lakes before.
The sky was cloudy the entire drive except one small hole. Maybe that was the break we needed? (7/18)

Erie, PA seemed to be right on the edge of driving distance before it started. We got in the car and left. (6/18)

had been scouring GOES-East, trying to figure out where the clouds would be at 3. Clearly it wasn’t going to be Rochester. But the back end of the clouds was advancing toward Cleveland. Mike said we could sit and worry or we could start driving west and see what happens. (5/18)

I hate shopping for anything and hemmed and hawed over three pairs of shoes that were close but didn’t fit right. I finally got one pair (that I’ll probably return), and we left around 11 AM
Outside it was completely cloudy with no hope of clearing up. (4/18)

So we went to Target to get a clear backpack and some chair cushions to sit on. Then we went to DSW because my shoes are falling apart and we would need to walk a couple miles. (3/18)

We woke up this morning and had breakfast, chatted with some of the other hotel guests, and set off to find a few supplies. We were planning to watch it at SUNY Brockport, but their stadium doesn’t allow bags that aren’t clear. (2/18)

Eclipse Photo Dump!!! Tl;dr — We went eclipse chasing and saw totality!!! Ok. This trip has been wild. As I said before, things had been lining up perfectly yesterday. (1/18)

Coda: I wore my handmade Orion lampwork glass bead earrings. Oh yeah, and then we swung by Niagara Falls because why not? Finally we stopped at Rohrbach Brewing Company for a Totality Black Ale and much needed dinner. (18/18)

Then I looked at the sun. It was a white ring around the dark moon. You could see corona gasses swirling around the edge. It almost seemed shimmery. People cheered and applauded! Someone set off fireworks. (11/18)

WE DID IT!!! We saw totality just northeast of Erie, PA!!! Full story later but holy crap that was intense!!!

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