After hearing about the Great American Eclipse from Ashley, I asked Chi if he wanted to go. Of course, he did and he planned it. I didn’t expect much but was blown away at how magical and surreal the total eclipse was.

Saturday August 19, 2017

We headed towards Oregon but stopping in Tukwila at a popular asian bakery, 85°C Bakery Cafe for breakfast. Man, my weekend was already starting off well with unique soft buns. I’m usually not a huge fan of asian bakeries but this one was impressive.

We had a mediocre lunch in Salem, shopped and went to a cute Saturday market with the freshest and sweetest cantaloupe I’ve ever had. It was so juicy. We set up camp in a school field near the Oregon Garden.

Sunday August 20, 2017

We went to Silver Falls State Park and hiked parts of the Trail of Ten Waterfalls. South falls was beautiful and it was nice to hike behind it. The trail got less busy as we hiked further from parking lot as many tourists would turn back.

We saw a seven smaller falls through our 5-mile hike looped at Winter Falls.

We drove to North Falls instead of finishing the full hike and this was our favorite because of the deep caverns behind the falls.

We also went to the Oregon Garden, a 80-acre beautiful botanical garden that was near our campsite for a evening stroll before dinner during golden hour.

Monday August 21, 2017

We woke up early for the eclipse viewing at the Oregon Garden. It was busy but not insanely crowded. We found a nice spot in the garden and awaited the partial eclipse. We used our solar glasses to slowly see the moon move over the course of an hour. We were so lucky for this clear blue sky day.

As the sun slowly disappeared, the sky started dimming and the temperature was dropping. The anticipation felt like the world was ending.

About 10:16am, the sun was 100% covered and the crowds were cheering. I couldn’t see anything with my glasses anymore. I took my glasses off because in this small window of totality, you can view the sun with your naked eye. It was magical and eerie. The stars were out. The temperature dropped. The sky dimmed into a unique twilight tone. Everyone was admiring the beautiful eclipse. It was dazzling and unforgettable.

The two minutes went too quickly as I saw the moon move out of the way and the sun was peeking through. The entire experience is hard to describe but it was one of the most memorable and unique moments I’ve ever had. Partial eclipse might be neat but nothing beats totality. It’s a good reminder of how small we are and how big the universe is. It truly should be on everyone’s bucket list.

We were also advised about the shadow distortion and walked to the trees to admire them after totality.

We packed our campsite and met up with Ashley and Junmin for lunch in Salem. It was great to see familiar faces and we shared our eclipse stories over some bibimbap and kalbi. Instead of sitting in horrible traffic back to Seattle, we hiked to Abiqua Falls. This was a rough drive and unmarked steep trail but luckily we found our way by asking returning hikers. It was a beautiful spot once we got there.

Traffic was a pain. Even deliberately leaving at 7:30pm, the traffic added another 1.5 hour drive back to Seattle. But it wasn’t as bad as I heard from others, where it took them 12 hours to get back right after the eclipse.