Eclipse!

[dianec42]

We drove to Redding (CA) to be in the path of yesterday's annular solar eclipse. It was totally worth the drive! We watched it from Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. There were quite a few people there, but it wasn't out of control. (Apparently the group at Whiskeytown got a bit rowdy. Glad we drove further!)

I made a pinhole projector (in the field!) from stuff I had brought along. Basically, under $1 worth of crap we had lying around the house. Yay science!

This was thoroughly upstaged when one of the guys made a cardboard cutout - I think it was supposed to be a cat, or maybe Totoro or something - and poked 2 pinholes for eyes. We all decided it was actually Batman. Hilarity!

It is amazing how much astronomy stuff you can fit into a Mini.

Things I could have done without:
* crappy service at the previously awesome steakhouse the second night;
* my husband's awesome super power of getting sick in strange cities;
and
* dire warnings from the Mini half an hour from home (the oil pressure is too low and we're ALL GONNA DIE!) which vanished before we even successfully found a place to pull off. We checked the oil. It's fine.

More on the trip later. Time to get back to laundering ALL THE THINGS.