“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” ― Laura Ingalls Wilder
The kids are taking a 5 week Tide Pooling class and we went to the Portland area for a field day with a couple Marine Biologists. I loved it, they did too. We also did seine netting, which I have never done before. It yielded a few things I hadn't seen before.
Truth be told, the transition back from our eclipse trip hasn't been easy peasy lemon sqeezy. But, it was worth it. Here are a few shots of our whirlwind of a trip.
We drove 7 hours for the totality, despite my dad and my son thinking it was crazy.
The verdict? It was good. Really good. Better than I expected. It was very easy to see and fascinating to see the changes. The rapid temperature change was neat to experience, as was how quickly everything got really dark. The sun looked amazing peeking out behind the moon in a perfect circle. The part that surprised me the most was the response of the wild to the change. As the moon was moving, we notice the birds completely stopped their chatter. The mosquitoes moved right in along with moths. The peepers started their chorus. Then I just couldn't believe it, a coyote howled like it was midnight. Then just as it rapidly started, it all quickly shifted the opposite. The night noises faded and the birds started their songs again. A flock of geese went by. I wish all mosquitoes went away, but a few lingered.
Bonus entertainment was my dad's commentary ("We're just supposed to sit here to wait for the sun to go away?" YES. "You do know the sun goes down every night." UGH.), my dad's neighbors visited and when all was said and done, Anna-Kate asked if we were going to have breakfast since we just wrapped up night and were back to day. You know, donuts would have been a great grand finale if I had thought of it.
Long and short, it was memorable and I'm glad we made the trip.
When 100% totality is over your childhood home, you go. We aimed to make time and make it from Maine to the NY nature center by 2 to do Eclipse activities. We made it. And as a bonus, we caught a ship going through the locks.
Somehow we never lost power in this last storm. The other side of our road lost power and the road our road intersects with at the other end lost power. But we didn't. We made the best out of Winter in April.
Today was a major blizzard. Somehow we didn't lose power. So what did I do? I made a lot of food. I spent a couple of hours reading to my kids. We worked together to clear the driveway. Justin made us laugh and picked a movie for the kids (Beethoven). Adrian worked hard and did some art. Audra baked and worked on her friendship bracelets. Anna-Kate did a watercolor painting, played playmobil and read Ramona. This is the only picture I took. Thankful we all love being home. After blogging, I'm signing off and working on a new to me calligraphy font. Everything is cancelled for tomorrow, we're planning on starting our day with acrylics.
We have been OUTSIDE for hours upon hours as of late.
