The sun and moon, and weather all perfectly aligned for a once-in-a-lifetime show this week.
While I’d viewed partial eclipses of the sun previously in my life, never the full-on, instant darkness, amazing show we were treated to in Vermont and many other parts of the country on Monday. It couldn’t have been better.
Welcome eclipse viewers!
There was much excitement leading up to the event, and our little state did what it could to prepare for the expected influx of 150,000 people, that’s a quarter of our state’s population. Store and restaurants stocked up, and still ran out of bread. Every room in the state was booked well before the event. The state wisely advised folks to come early and leave late to avoid the expected traffic jams on the interstate highways and other roads. Some folks actually listened to that advice.
Let’s gather
Our spare bedrooms were all claimed well in advance as well, and of course we planned a couple of dinner parties to celebrate the event and bring in a few more out-of-town friends who we hadn’t seen in a long time and would be in the area for the viewing. What a wonderful time it was.
We’re ready, let’s start the show!
We positioned our garden benches for the perfect siteline. We dutifully gathered filters for our cameras and special glasses to protect our eyes. We snacked on cream of mushroom soup while we waited and watched the sun slowly, very slowly, disappear. We listened to Mark Breen from the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarian in St. Johnsbury guide us through the eclipse on Vermont Public radio.
For once, we had blue skies!
We had been hopeful for clear skies, but Vermont has been quite cloudy for months. Still, it looked good and miraculously, all was well except for a few wispy clouds. Perfect. Still amazed at that part of the equation.
First, it got cold
I thought I knew what to expect, but I really didn’t. While it was t-shirt weather outside (in the north country that means 55 degrees), the temperature started to drop. At about ¾ eclipsed, I put my sweater on; the light took on a silverish shimmer and the air was quite still. Our dogs both decided on a nap, but they are golden retrievers and are apt any time of day or night to do so.
Then, the shadow of the moon raced across the landscape
As we approached totality, I took off my glasses for a moment and witnessed the wall of moon shadow that seemed to race across the yard, bringing night with it. What a site! I tossed the glasses back on and not able to see any light through them, I knew we were at totality, and immediately we all viewed with complete awe the spectacular show in the sky with our naked eyes.
It was big! So much bigger than I imagined, and none of our photographs caught it just right or did it justice. My son-in-law took some awesome shots with his telescope, and my grandson propped his cell phone on the edge of a garden bench and got a pretty good time-lapse movie.
These images were taken by my son-in-law with his telescope.
There were tears in my eyes and goosebumps on my arms. We were all mesmerized, by the site of it, by the strange darkness and light. The horizon for 360 degrees was a deep amber, our fairy lights came on, and it was still, almost an otherworldly experience that is hard to describe. The mosquitoes were out in full force as soon as the sky darkened! I learned from others around the state, it happened everywhere.
That’s it!
Then it was over, three minutes later. We popped the champagne cork, and drank a toast to sun and the moon, and watched, with glasses donned again, as the sun slowly grew again. Then all was back to normal.
People were good
Yes, there were the expected bumper-to-bumper traffic jams on the highways that at times became parking lots. But with all the crowds, more than had ever converged on Vermont in one day, there were no major problems. People were good, they were patient, they came, did a great deal of shopping and stimulation of the local economy, they shared in mass crowds the remarkable event, and then they went home in a fairly orderly manner, although quite slow, they knew in advance it would be like this.
Of course, there was lots of food!
Our menu for the three days was fun and each meal sort of bumped into the next. I made a seafood paella for Sunday nights supper and the early arrivals. New England seafood at its best – clams, mussels, Maine sea scallops, squid, and Gulf shrimp dotted the flavorful Spanish rice, topped with roasted red peppers. The leftovers went into a frittata the next morning, and were recycled once more into rice patties for breakfast on Tuesday.
A gathering of old friends
Monday night’s post-eclipse dinner included friends of mine from the newspaper where I worked for many years. It was great to see everyone again, sharing old stories and lots of laughter. We feasted on lemon and lavender local chicken dish (the leftovers went into a hash the next day), asparagus with lemon sauce, and roasted baby potatoes with white truffle oil and Parmesan.
Yes, there was dessert, but no moon pies
For dessert I made an old-fashioned orange cake I found on one of my favorite blogs A Hundred Years Ago. The recipe was simple, and I made it ahead of time to have it at the ready with no fuss. It was delicious, and I highly recommend it. Our only change was I used blood oranges because I had them on hand, so the batter was rather pink, but it settled down in the baking. I added a glaze made with Grand Marnier, and we enjoyed it with berries.
Ready when you are
I’d also made a big batch of cream of mushroom soup ahead of time, a perfect lunch snack as we waited for the sun to disappear. It was a good choice.
The house is quiet now. I have the day to myself, and time to reflect. I’ll keep a pair for the memory book, and donate the rest of the viewing glasses. Our landfill transfer station has collection bins set up to recycle them to other areas for future eclipses.
I feel fortunate to have witnessed this in my lifetime, and will never forget the almost magic transformation of the world in just moments. I hope all who were in the path of totality had an equally enjoyable time.
In 2045, there will be another total solar eclipse in the US, but not visible in Vermont. Sometime in 2100, there will be another we can view here. Let’s start hoping for blue skies.
And here is a time lapse from our local television station WCAX in Burlington:
Time lapse total eclipse 8 April 2024
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Love it!! We were at 96 percent here but it was still really fun.
It’s always amazing!
Lucky are the people who celebrated with you. Did you play VanMorrison’s Moondance?
We resisted the urge Bernie! But we thought about it, and we definitely did a little moon dance.
I know how you feel, we experienced the Annular Solar Eclipse in October last fall and it was AMAZING! Our oldest son works for Wyoming Stargazing in Jackson, WY taking tourists out to view the stars with telescopes. He traveled to Evansville, IN to see 100% totality of this eclipse and couldn’t stop talking about how emotional it was. I love seeing and hearing about your experience!
It was indeed emotional, and I didn’t expect that Jan! It was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced, so unreal.
I like the way you wrote this with the focus on the sun, the atmosphere, the food, and the mystique! It sounds like Vermont knows how to celebrate with good manners.
We know how to throw a good party, and clean up afterwards!
Speaking as one of the guests, the food was excellent and the company even better!
Thanks Bob! We enjoyed your company immensely, and you win the prize for having seen not one, not two, but three total solar eclipses in you life – so far!
Thank you, Dorothy, fot the lovely update of the day!
Joanna
Thanks Joanna! It was a most memorable event!
Yes, Dorothy, one in a lifetime event!
Joanna
💕
This is such a fun post, Dorothy. I feel your enthusiasm. You perfectly described what happened and your emotions. And of course, we are all jealous of your family. We know the food was incredible. Isn’t it wonderful to celebrate such an event?
It was really amazing, and words really can’t express the feelings and the mood at totality. Seeing photos all my life was nothing in comparison.
Lovely post! I can only imagine your excitement while viewing the eclipse. We too witnessed a surreal phenomenon here in Canada.
It was truly wonderful, wasn’t it? I feel really lucky to have seen such a great display.
Wonderful post, wonderful writing. You sure know how to celebrate. Love it! We weren’t in the path of the total eclipse, but we found it fascinating all the same. We will be donating our glasses, too.
I think it is wonderful that the glasses donation was thought out so well in advance!
We returned ours yesterday to our library.
Ours heads out Tuesday! ❤️🕶️
This is great! Thanks for sharing your experience. How wonderful you got to share it with friends.
Thank you! It was one of those precious moments in a precious day!
It was certainly an ‘event.’ I am glad I stayed home and wasn’t on the highways heading south for 10-12 hours. Ugh.
Me too! We could watch from our own yard, and we felt like we had the best seats in the house.
Wow, your sighting of the eclipse was spectacular.
Here in Maryland it didn’t even get dark so there was nothing to see.
It’s always such a narrow path, but we certainly lucked out in northern Vermont!
It was awe inspiring! I loved your post!
We watched the total eclipse in Hot Springs, AR. I am so far behind in my blog, it will take me a while to post about our experience. It was worth the travel cost to experience the total eclipse of the sun!
Amazing, wasn’t it? Words cannot describe.
They really can’t. It was a feeling of awe unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced.
Yes, I’ve been writing AWEsome to everyone!
Oh my god, I’ll be 89 years old for the next eclipse! What a fun post and a really fun thing to do. You have a nice family!
Thanks Mimi! I do have a nice family and lovely friends ad well!
I already promised my grandson I’d watch the next eclipse with him!
Yes eclipses are amazing aren’t they?
I am so glad I finally got to see one!
How wonderful!!
My son called me and told me how incredible it was! He said the same thing as you. He’d never experienced anything like it before.
Thanks so much for sharing your day with us.
We were at 60% here, and it was fantastic.
It was the most brilliant thing! One for the memories that’s for sure!
What a great event for you and your family! Down by us it was no big deal.
We were extremely lucky to be right in the path! Unforgettable.
Wow Dorothy, how awesome! Thanks for sharing your photos and the video! Not only did you get to experience the totality, you were surrounded with family and friends~incredibly special! I know everyone ate very well, and how fun to pop champagne when it was over. Nothing really happened in my area, it was sunny and then got a little darker, but it was clouds rolling in. I did watch a lot of different places that were experiencing the eclipse on TV. So amazing how it got quiet and went from sunny to total darkness and then back to sunny. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Jenna
Thanks Jenna! It was indeed a day for the memory books. I had never experienced one before, and the whole thing was far more emotional than I expected.
Oh Dorothy, what a wonderful event you witnessed with your loved ones! You brought the soup and plenty of heart to the eclipse that day. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We didn’t see much where we are in Western Canada so it’s nice to see the great photos your son-in-law took 🌙🌞👓
Thanks Christy! It was definitely a wonderful event, and everyone around here is still talking about it!
Great post!
I am a Vermonter and watched from my yard to avoid the traffic.. Thank you for the recipes and photo’s.
It sounds like you had a wonderful event to remember through the years..
It was great having a yard-side view, wasn’t it? Didn’t have to face another car or crowd.
Pardon the pun, but I am over the moon for your photos and your effort for making the eclipse such a memorable event for everyone in your crowd! Those telescope shots are nothing short of amazing!
Jesse did a great job of getting those splendid shots. During the actual totality, I only took a couple of yard shots and one of the sun/moon because I was pretty well mesmerized and forgot!
We watched from our backyard here in Texas and the total eclipse was stunning and amazing! Thanks for sharing the Vermont images and your celebration!
Definitely a time to remember!
So glad you had a good view of the eclipse–great photos! We had 98% coverage where I live, so I didn’t see a total eclipse, but it was pretty close! 🙂
It was so far beyond awesome, thank you Nancy!
It was wonderful that you had a perfect day for the event. The images you got were terrific.
Thank you so much Karen! I guess the memory has to serve me best, my photos didn’t come out too well and I couldn’t find the charger for my good camera. But, I’ll always have my son-in-law’s lovely shots and my own recollections!
During October 1958 we had a total solar eclipse in Australia. I was eight and full of wonder at the eerie event; I remember it well. However, it would have been so much more magical if I’d had your dessert and mushroom soup to accompany it.
Maybe next time?
It’s a date my friend!
What a marvelous celebration! And every hearsay of superstitions.. perfectly blotted out with the perfect array of astral foods! Cheers!❤️
Thank you my dear! Beautifully said!
Wow! A once-in-a-lifetime show indeed surrounded by friends and family! Gorgeous photos! A memorable moment! 🌞 🌕
It was definitely a three minutes to remember always!
Oh My God! You are so lucky to have witness the total eclipse, to have friends and family gathered to share the event with you, and good food to cement the memories. I love how you describe the event with such luscious detail. The chill, the darkness, and the mosquitos. I can’t imagine how the amazing that would have been to witness. Next time, I’m joining you! Hugs, C
It’s a date my friend!
I had never witnessed one before (don’t you love that idea, ‘witnessed’ ?) and I had no idea it would be such an emotional moment. I feel truly blessed to have been in the right place, my own yard, at the right time, 3:26 pm, the best weather, clear skies and wispy clouds, and with the company of family and friends.