Some of us traveled to the path of "totality" for the full experience, but I believe there was some degree of eclipse almost everywhere in the continental USA.
It was amazing how the sky gradually darkened, the temperature dramatically dropped and the shadows of tree leaves looked like crescents as the moon covered more and more of the sun, eclipsed it entirely and then revealed it anew.
From our vantage point at a soccer field in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the temperature must have dropped 20 degrees, making a hot day suddenly chilly within minutes.
Please don't mention this to Al Gore or Bill Nye. We don't want to hurt their feelings, but manmade climate change had nothing to do with it!
In order to see the source of the temperature drops, you of course needed to look through filtered lenses. Most of us used eclipse glasses purchased from Amazon, but some went all out for special binoculars and camera lenses to enhance the experience even further.
If you snuck a glance at the sun without the specially tinted lens at any time except totality (and if you weren't in the path of totality, that was throughout the eclipse), then all you saw was the bright sun, even when the specially coated lenses revealed that only a sliver of sun was visible on the side of the fat moon.
That's because the sun is so powerful that the smallest fragment of direct light still overwhelms our natural sight sense.
At totality, of course, you had to remove those special glasses or all would have been utter darkness, assuming you were in the path of totality.
We were among the forty or so people in the park who not only oohed and aahed but actually shouted for joy at the remarkable occasion.
How truly mind-blowing it turned out to be for about two minutes when direct light of the sun was blocked out entirely by the moon, with only the corona aura of the nearest star --- our sun --- visible blasting around the periphery of the dark orb that orbits Earth.
Nearby, however, you could see Venus and Mars and perhaps some stars in the darkened sky as confused birds flew across, apparently unsure if it was dawn or dusk.
It was truly breathtaking, and most of us who experienced it hope to live to see another.
We're all looking for a special experience for our next great vacation.
We decide what we want and then closely examine the possibilities.
Sometimes, we quickly find exactly the perfect vaction, but other times we think perhaps a better deal will come along on the cruise we definitely want.
Just as at totality we needed to take off those special lenses in order to enjoy the full experience, sometimes our "search lenses" block revealing what is right before us.
Don't be the person who misses the perfection in front of him hoping for something he will never see through special lenses that have become a blindfold under the perfect conditions.
The deal of a lifetime comes along very often if you have an open calendar, no specific destination in mind and no preferred means of travel.
As your search narrows, however, it pays to get beyond unrealistic filters, or you may miss what would be the deal of a lifetime for your next great vacation.
"Better service leads to better trips!"
P.S. As I've mentioned on many other occasions, I have frequently had clients give me specific parameters and wait for a "last minute deal" to book, but even if I find exactly what they want a few weeks before the originally scheduled departure, they usually realize that life has made other plans for them, and they can no longer go. Plan your life, or it will plan you!
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