I didn't get on the eclipse-hype-bandwagon until a few months ago when I was talking to David and Lisa in Sacramento, and David was hell-bent on making a summer plan to drive north to experience darkness at 10 in the morning; I said that if they made the trip, I'd drive south from Seattle to meet them. During the next few months, bits and pieces of a plan came together, were revised, revised some more, changed completely, and finally finalized about a week before we met up in Portland. We heard the warnings about traffic and crowds but for the most part (and David's eclipse-anxiety dreams notwithstanding [he said that in one, when we looked through our solar glasses, there were advertising banners across the sun]), we were excited to get where we were going and we felt reasonably confident that it would all work out, and it did.
We started by having a wonderful weekend in Portland. I stayed at
Emily's fabulous condo on Friday and Saturday nights and had a great time in her neighborhood, and by total coincidence, David, Lisa, and Michael were staying in a hotel just a few blocks away, so we met up several times before heading further south on Sunday.
Portlandia:
 |
How truly wonderful that an independent bookstore is such a popular tourist destination;
I was not the only person taking a photo of this sign.
 |
How truly sad that in 2017, this information needs to posted as it's not a given;
I saw this sign up in businesses all over town. |
|
 |
 |
If I hadn't eaten this chocolate ganache donut with a fork,
I'd still have chocolate on my face. Best donut ever. |
|
After two full days in Portland, we drove to the home of the Gomezes, friends of David and Lisa's who live in Wilsonville, OR, which is still outside the 'path,' but closer to it than Portland. We had a nice afternoon and evening with Jonah, the only one in the Gomez family, usually six members strong, who happened to be home. And after waking up at 6am the next day, we drove ten miles south to Hubbard, OR, where the Gomezes used to live, to a park across the street from their old house. It was all so easy - we made the drive in about 15 minutes, parked our cars at the park, found a good spot for a breakfast picnic in the middle of a ball field, and settled in for the next three hours. I honestly didn't know what to expect. I knew it would get dark (but the sharp temperature drop surprised me) and I knew it would be cool to see the moon cut across the sun obscuring it more and more (through solar glasses, of course), but I didn't realize how beautiful the glow of the sun's corona around the outline of the moon would look when we whipped our glasses off during the fifty-three seconds of totality. A cheer went up from our little crowd in the park; it was cold and dark and the air seemed charged. When the lights came back on, we all felt a little dazed - and happy. It was far more spectacular and weirdly emotional than anything I could have imagined, and it was extra-cool to share it with such good friends.
 |
 |
I knew the park in Hubbard was the spot for us when I saw this street sign
leading into the park on the Google map when we were planning the trip. |
|
The photos I took didn't do justice to anything in the sky, but here are some shots showing the transition from light to dark.
And here are two fantastic photos that Emily's boyfriend Tom took from their viewing spot in Madras, OR, where they had one of the longest views of totality (2m 03.0s).
