Total Eclipse, Portland
Every two years a total eclipse passes somewhere on earth, the tricky part is being at the right place and the right time.
You see according to wiki they occur it is estimated that they recur at any given place only once every 360 to 410 years, and this year it would be passing just 980 miles North of us.
On Aug 20th 2017 a boyfriend at the time and I decided there was no way we were gonna miss this chance, so we began this journey onwards.
During this time northern California was experiencing major wildfires, the whole drive up was hazy and gave the sun a red tint. Traffic wasn't too bad, and we were so excited to get up there we didn't mind it one bit.
We arrived one day early at 11:00pm on the 20th. We wanted to explore Portland before the eclipse.
Everyone in town was pumped and many even having themed desserts for the big day.
The day of was wild. We woke up early and to stay in a town outside Salem. We didn't really know what to expect or what to do, and after grabbing breakfast at a local diner we followed some people and found a park.
It honestly felt so strange sharing this experience with strangers, like we were all in on this secret. I observed everyone around us, young people, old people, people from other countries, people from out of state like us, there was nothing stopping anyone from being there.
We were all there to see something truly specular.
As we counted down out loud chills began to take hold of me. At first I thought we were missing but then, everything got dark and the sound rounding environment literally got cold in seconds. It was so strange to see no light around us. It wasn't completely pitch dark but it was enough to feel almost like a strong moonlight.
It was truly magical, I couldn't hold the emotions that I felt. I took some photos of the eclipse but it doesn't nothing to showcase this truly incredible event.
PS on the drive back, it was the worst traffic I had ever seen in myyy life an extra 4 hours of driving. But it was worth this.