The light streaming through the leaves turning into crescents. Bailey’s Beads. The sun peeking out from the lowest canyons of the moon.  The Diamond Ring. One last flash of the sun, the wedding ring of the heavens. And finally, Totality. The sun's corona, spilling out like soft silk. The sky like twilight, stars twinkling like tiny candles above the horizon. It was truly a miracle. I couldn’t turn my eyes away.

***

August 19th, 2017

Wake up.
My mom called. I sprung awake. We would be leaving for Oregon soon! I climbed out of my bed and changed. With my backpack and luggage, I hopped with delight into the car. We took off to Oregon. We had left early, fearing the bumper-to-bumper traffic, and not getting to Albany, Oregon in time. Stopping for breakfast at McDonalds, Lunch at a bistro called Moonstone Cafe, and Dinner at Kaiyo Sushi. It has been a 12 hour drive.

At about 10pm PT, we arrived at our hotel, Best Western Plus: Prairie Inn. It had been the only hotel that had vacant rooms in the path of totality when we had booked it 6 months ago. As we stepped into the room, we collapsed onto the beds and crashed into sleep.

August 20th, 2017

I woke up feeling rejuvenated. We sleepily headed downstairs to the complimentary breakfast service. Yawning, I poured myself some oatmeal, eggs, sausage and juice onto a plate and headed upstairs. Stomach full, we stayed in our room and started researching more about the solar eclipse, for the traffic might be heavy outside. We also bought a souvenir solar eclipse pint glass that the hotel was selling as well. (They might sell out) My mom and I went to the fitness center to work some of our energy off. We ate dinner in our room with some cup ramen we had brought from home. It had been a pretty chilled out day.

August 21st, 2017

Today is the day!

I thought to myself. I had been so excited, I had woken up at 6:30am PT. I rushed downstairs to get a quick bite. Pestering my mom and dad, we unloaded our telescope, tripod and solar filter and set up in a park that was right in front of our hotel. We spread a large mat, took out our eclipse glasses, and set the telescope so it would track the sun. We saw several sunspots. People around us were chattering away, too. There was about 50 people.

At about 9am PT, I was practically bursting with excitement. I would peek into the telescope and see if the moon and sun had touched yet. Then, the people around me started a countdown. There I saw it! A tiny dip in the orange sun. I danced. I hopped. I took out my eclipse glasses and watched the progress. I started a time-lapse video through the telescope with my mom’s iPhone.

Soon enough, it became 10am PT. The sun was already a thin, narrow crescent. The moon slowly advanced, eating up the sun. Then before I knew it, it was totality. The wind started blowing. It got about 10 degrees colder. I felt gratitude for our normal sun. I peeked into the telescope, and saw a beautiful sight. A black circle with a soft white gas around it. In a blink of an eye, the 2 minutes of totality was over. It had been the shortest 2 minutes of my life. After that, it all happened in reverse. The Diamond Ring, Baily’s Beads, thin crescent, and thick crescent.

Meanwhile, at the field of the park, people were cheering and clapping, thinking it was over. Taking a look in my telescope, I saw a tiny dip, to small to be seen with eclipse glasses or filtered binoculars. I stayed until it was actually over. I finally let go of my breath. I couldn’t believe what had happened. It was 11:35am PT. It had been, truly, a miracle of the heavens.