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Being a big astronomy nerd I've been fascinated with the total eclipse of 2017, and always assumed that I am one of few that will drive for hours to witness a total eclipse... boy was I wrong. 2 months before the eclipse I found out that pretty much every single hotel in the path of totality had been booked months in advance. I had grossly underestimated everyone's interest in the eclipse!

Lucky for me, there were still plenty of camping sites available. I ended up choosing to drive up to Idaho because the media warned of the massive gridlock that can happen in Oregon, and also the weather might not be ideal on a costal state. We had a group of 6 who wanted to go, but 3 dropped out in fear that the mass of people and the gridlock would be unbearable.

As it turned out, the media blew everything out of proportion. (big surprise!) The drive up to Idaho was a breeze, there's no water, food, or gas shortage, and when we arrived at our campsite, we found that we were the first one at a camp ground that was only 5% reserved. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.

Having arrived one day in advance, we were able to enjoy a portion of the meteor shower on Saturday night, visit hot springs on Sunday afternoon, then went for some bass fishing on Sunday evening. We even caught an 8 pound bass before wrapping up for the day!



Monday morning was the eclipse. I was fully prepared with solar glasses, two binoculars and a telescope all fitted with solar filters. We patiently observed as the sun started to cool the earth and turn into a crescent shape, then before we were ready, totality happened and everything just turned dark. During totality we were all in awe of everything around us. Whether it was the night sky in the middle of the day, the twilight coming from beyond the horizon, having Mercury, Venus, and Mars visible in the sky, and the amazing corona surrounding the eclipse, every second was spent soaking in the experience of this black hole that covered up the fireball in the sky.

Needless to say that the 12 hour drive each way was totally worth it. (even more worth it because my friend did the driving!) And right after we came home, we were already talking about the next eclipse happening in 2024!

The summer event is almost ready, it was actually supposed to come out today, but we needed to balance the game a bit more and get some coding ready. We should be releasing it on Wednesday. Can't wait to show you all the mini games!