Columbia, MO was in the path of full totality for the solar eclipse on August 21st. James's preschool sent home a note that said they wouldn't be going outside for safety reasons, so Sam kept James home (actually took him to work with him for the morning), and then they joined his work in a potluck / eclipse viewing.
Here's James in his NASA shirt filching candy from someone's office:
And hanging out in Dad's comfortable chair:
Eclipse viewing:
Sam's office viewing the eclipse:
My work also had a potluck. I took open-faced eclipse sandwiches. We kept going outside every 15 minutes or so to check on the progress. It was very overcast, but you could see the sun with the special eclipse glasses.
My coworker brought chairs and we camped out in front of the office from 1:00pm til maybe 1:20 (a little after the total coverage). The folks at the tattoo parlor next door were also camped out on their deck right in front of us.
This is me geeking out over totality! It got so dark we could see 1 star (probably a planet) and the temperature dropped noticeably and the cicadas went nuts.
They made a big deal out of it at Amelie's school, too. We sent her with a beach towel, water bottle, and sunscreen on. She said all the kids were yelling and running around during the minute they could take their glasses off and see the corona. We banged on pots and pans like traditionalists, but some folks across the street were shooting off fireworks. It was an interesting experience for sure. I'm already planning a trip to the bootheel for the next one!
The city was expecting something like 200,000 visitors! I know that every single hotel room was booked, but I dropped the baby off at 8:15am and picked her up at 3:00pm like normal and didn't see any extra traffic. I think most of them were at lakes/parks/special viewing areas.
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