Eclipsed Anniversary

(October 14th, 2023)

It just so happens that there was an eclipse on the day we celebrated our anniversary this year. I missed the last one, so Tyler graciously decided to spend time driving south into the middle of nowhere to watch the eclipse. We ordered some glasses online so the kids could maybe go outside and see a partial eclipse since our house wasn't quite on the main path.

Tyler and I drove down south to Delta. Not much to see on that drive.

After driving up and down their main street, we opted to stop at a parking lot which happened to be right next to the Great Basin Museum. It was the perfect place to stop, it turns out. They were doing their own celebration of the eclipse. We tried out our glasses to make sure they worked and then we headed down the street to get some snacks.

We saw some fun things on the way. It was not a very far walk, just a few blocks, down to the Jubilee store. They had a great selection of yummies and Tyler even found some Glögg, which is a Swedish holiday drink. He likes it more than wassail. We took all our treats back to the parking lot and settled in to watch the sun.

The museum was more serious about the event than we were. Many people had brought telescopes of varying magnification to watch the event. Anyone could look through, so it was fun to check out the different views. Through one, you could see the solar flares on the sun. Amazing.

As time passed, the Moon slowly worked its way in front of the sun. An eclipse is when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. A Total Solar Eclipse means the Moon will block the sun entirely and you can briefly look at the sun without glasses. This was a Annular Solar Eclipse, when the Moon is near its farthest point from Earth, so it appears smaller and doesn't cover the Sun completely, instead leaving a ring of light around the Moon. It basically means you should listen to this song, NOT this song. 

Almost there. It just looks like a cool nose ring right now.

Finally, it became the complete ring around the Moon. It was really cool. It didn't darken everything since there was still enough light from the sun, but it did get dimmer. Dim enough that the outside lights at the nearby Dollar Store came on as if it were twilight. Pretty nifty. 

We had a good time and then we drove back from our eclipse adventure. We still had a lot of the day left to hang out, so we went for a walk in the canyon. It was such a gorgeous day. Many people were out getting family pictures and the like. It would have been a good opportunity to get our anniversary shot, but we didn't bring the framed picture or a kid to take a photo. C'est la vie.

In the evening, we went up to the Anniversary Inn. Tyler reserved the Mysteries of Egypt suite for us. It was pretty cool. There was not a bathroom, so to speak. There was a toilet in a little nook, but the shower and sink were just in the bedroom proper. The shower was a large cobra which was cool and there was no faucet for the tub. The water trickled out up above and ran down to the rocks to slowly fill the tub. Interesting to say the least. The décor felt very Egyptian with the statues and hieroglyphics.

It's nice to have an evening to get away. Daisy saw these pictures and asked, "When did you go to an Egyptian spa?" Close enough.

Happy Anniversary my cute hubby! Or should I say Gaius Antonius.