Today I let my kids play hooky from school and I drove them down to Toledo to see the solar eclipse in totality. In Detroit we would have seen 99 percent which is still pretty cool and their school had a viewing outside, but as far as eclipses go, there is a big difference between total and 99 percent. The gasp of amazement from my six year old when he got to see the corona of the sun was so worth the drive. All three of my kids had an amazing day and it’ll be something they remember all their lives.

Our original plan when driving down was to go to the Toledo Zoo for their event, but the queue for getting to the overflow parking lot was so long the kids decided they were not set on that plan and wanted to eat and go to Target. So we did! The Target parking lot was a perfect place for us to view the eclipse. A few others had the same idea but the area was quiet and open. Perfect for my son who gets overwhelmed at loud noisy crowds like we would have had at the zoo. And when the eclipse was nearing totality and it started getting dark everyone had a collective laugh when all the street lights suddenly turned on in the lot.

Were you able to see an eclipse, partial or otherwise, before?