On the way to the eclipse, we stopped outside The Arch. The girls took a few pictures. Leah really likes pictures of her jumping. It turned out pretty good!
We ended up in a tiny town called Arnold. We weren't sure where we were going to see the eclipse. I looked at a lot of different maps, and while everything I read said that Southern St. Louis would experience totality, I could never figure out exactly where "Southern St. Louis" would consist of. So, I decided better safe than sorry, and started looking for towns south of St. Louis. I really wanted to be on the Mississippi River, but soon figured out most of the prime places of pretty views were hosting ticketed events that were long sold out. I found a facebook page for Arnold that only had like 400 likes. They said they had acres of grass, ponds, bathrooms, and food trucks. And, they had 2 minutes and 11 seconds of totality. That all sounded pretty good, so we set off.
We again had no traffic. We drove right over and in. We found a spot under a big tree. It was like a giant family tailgate. It was a mix of locals and people that had drove in. All the kids played. Juliet met a "baby friend" who let Juliet treat her like she was her Mommy. Juliet was so thrilled with this (usually it is the other way around with Juliet and Leah's friends), that she didn't care at all about the eclipse. I had to beg her to look up. She was happiest sitting with her "baby friend" and giving her a "bath" with a bottle of water and a napkin, then doing the babies hair in a ponytail.
I was so excited because this tiny town had no price gouging or "supply and demand" pricing for the 1,000 (probably more) that came to their park to watch the eclipse. Waters were $1. Ice cream was $3. Hot dogs were $2. The food truck workers were "folksy" people who just wanted to tell us how happy they were that we came to their town. We were thankful for this--especially after the $7 waters the day before! The mayor of the town came out to thank everyone for coming, too. It was a really sweet experience. I'm glad we picked Arnold.
It was really hot this day, too. I think it was around 100. We kept buying bottles of water and the kids kept having me splash it on them or run it off their heads or backs. It was a fun way to stay cool.
About 30 minutes before the eclipse, a cloud covered the sun. Everyone around knew it would probably pass, but everyone was also starting to panic a little bit wondering what would happen if another cloud came along. It was funny and scary at the same time. When the cloud passed, everyone cheered loudly. It wasn't until about 10 minutes before the eclipse that it started to get weirdly hazy. It was a really odd feeling.
Then it happened! It was a sunset in all directions. All around the horizon was pink and orange. In my head, I thought it was supposed to be totally dark, so it took me a few seconds to realize that totality was happening. It was like it was dusk, not quite night, but close. We saw some stars and a planet--I think Venus? There were a lot of (hopefully) knowledgeable around us that kept excitedly pointing things out. I was still freaking out about Leah looking up at the sun after reading all the horror stories of blindness, and only let her look for a bit. Juliet was too busy playing with her "baby friend" to care AT ALL. I seriously had to drag her over to look at the sky during totality.
When the sun came back there were weird sun snake shadows on the ground that were pretty cool to see. A representative came on the PA system and warned everyone not to leave at the same time because there was going to be a lot of traffic. Everyone left anyway, and there wasn't any traffic. They had very efficient parking and a police officer directing traffic. We wanted to get in another activity, so we were glad to get right out and back to our hotel to shower.
On the way out, a dragonfly landed on Juliet's dress, and she was thrilled. She insisted on taking a picture.
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