Eclipse (& STL mini trip)

After the awesomeness that was the total solar eclipse in 2017, I  already knew that we'd want to travel to the next total eclipse in Missouri on April 8, 2024. School was cancelled for the day & I took off work. Sam had to go observe court & Columbia wasn't right in the path this time, so I vowed to take the kids by myself. Up until the last minute practically it looked like it was going to rain or at least be cloudy, but then the forecast started to improve. My first thought was to drive down to Jackson, MO, which was right on the line of totality, and then the hotel situation became dire - every single thing was booked anywhere close, and those that weren't were $500 & up a night - or $100 to camp in a field with no facilities. So I got a hotel in Fenton, MO, which is 56 miles North of Ste. Genevieve, where there's a national park & festivities with a good spot for viewing. 

The day before, we drove to St. Louis after church & took in the Science Center & got a hotel with a pool - this might have been the highlight of the trip for the kids, I think. We also got to eat out several times, which they also like! Ha! We met some cool people from Wisconsin also down for the eclipse - the hotel was PACKED. There was an indoor pool & a hot tub & an outdoor pool (even though it was April! And cold! The kids braved the outdoor pool but I just hopped in and right back out & then got in the hot tub. The morning of, James & Leah & I got up & had breakfast & let Amelie sleep in a bit. They were clamoring to get back in the pool, but it didn't open until 9am. I relented & said they could swim for one hour. So we were down there by the door waiting until it opened at 9 & the kids from Wisconsin came back. They were having such a good time, I let them swim 15 minutes more & then everyone was remarkably unhelpful getting the room packed back up, so we didn't pull out of the hotel parking lot until 10:45am. (Totality in Ste. Gen was going to start at 2pm.)  I'd planned on taking 61 down & avoiding the interstate, but was foiled by the GPS & it was the worst, most atrocious traffic I'd ever seen in my life. Bumper to bumper, lots of standstills. Mistakes were made! It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get 37 miles south of Fenton, at which point I gave up & just pulled off on the side of the road - along with many other folks in the same boat! I sure hope the cool people from Wisconsin didn't miss it! It felt like the entire Midwest turned out for the eclipse. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, with a completely clear sky. 

The kids were able to put on their glasses & watch the path of the eclipse out of the van windows & they thought it was super cool. We passed a hospital with a crowd - including doctors in white coats - out in the parking lot with their eclipse glasses on. We passed a road crew working, too, and hoped they were able to get some glasses & take a break every now and then to look up to see it. (& also wondered why MODOT in their infinite wisdom didn't cancel the road crews for the day!) During the last stretch, when traffic finally cleared up & we were on highway 61, I think the driver of the car in front of us was trying to watch the eclipse while driving because they kept swerving all over the place. At 1:55pm the kids were going nuts & I gave up & pulled over so we could all watch together. We saw the sliver of sun getting smaller & smaller & the sky got dark & the weather noticeably cooled off. We just got a second of totality & saw the diamond ring (obviously not my picture, but this is exactly what it looked like): 

I brought the colander so we could  track the progress, too, but the kids were not as impressed with it as I was (also not my picture! ha! but it really did this): 

In fact, the only photos I got at all were at the science center the day before. One of the main displays was all about games & here the kids are playing the first computer game: 

There was a part where you could see X-rays (& all of the X-rays showed horribly broken bones!) 

There was one game where you put on a sensor & played with your mind. It showed your brainwaves up on a screen above & the ball moved toward the person with the most activity, so the calmest/most Zen person won & Leah was the absolute master at it.

Here is Amelie doing a puzzle: 

And they all went in the hurricane simulator. The girls were impressed that the wind was so fierce at one point it blew James's hair straight. 

I always like the bridge that goes over the highway where you can use the speed gun on the cars driving past. This is $23 worth of snacks. 

I also really liked this microscope! We looked at the samples they had & also the fibers of my shirt. 

We ended up just pulling a U-turn & driving back after the totality passed & we had watched a few more minutes. We stopped at Panera in Arnold to eat lunch & watched some more in the parking lot there. Traffic was heavy but normal for a holiday weekend on the way home (I think only because we didn't hang around afterward! Our friends who made it a little farther & stayed a little longer were stuck in terrible standstill traffic on the way home, too - not getting back to Boonville til 11:30pm.) We got back to Columbia at 5:50pm. I was totally beat & Sam apologized about the horrid traffic, but I thought it was totally worth it & super awesome to see the eclipse. 

The next one I'm likely to catch is in 2045!