This year was my chance to view a total solar eclipse for the first time ever, so I was really excited to get the chance to see it.

Since Wisconsin wasn’t in the path of totality (I mean, seriously, if the path had been just a couple hundred miles to the left, we’d have had ‘er made), we went on a road trip! Five hours, two movies, and one Panda Express stop later, we arrived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and stayed at the super chic Bradley hotel.

The next morning, we drove an hour or so west until we reached Lima, Ohio. There, we found a nice park at Schoonover Lake. The eclipse was about to begin!

I may have *accidentally* looked at the sun without the eclipse glasses a few times, but I’m still here and I’m not blind, so all is well.

Without the glasses, the sun looked normal, with no sign whatsoever of an eclipse. But with the glasses…

When the moon covered over half of the sun, things started to look weird. It was as if someone took the world into a photo editor and turned down the highlights and contrast.

An hour after we’d arrived in the park, the moon made second contact. (Meaning that it completely covered the sun.) Everything went dark. It was exactly like sunset, but far quicker, and the sun was still there.

The sky was all dark blue, and the sun looked like a sparkling diamond encrusted ring.

Seeing the total solar eclipse was definitely one of the coolest experiences of my life, and totally worth the long road trip. (Then again, I wasn’t the one driving, so anything would be worth watching movies and chilling in the back seat of a car.) But still. It was an amazing experience.