We started the school year off with a field trip to the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina!
We visited family, went apple picking, saw the total eclipse of the sun, camped out, visited a hands-on children’s museum, got stuck in really bad traffic, and even exhaled! Quite the exciting weekend!
Before we left I packed up our solar eclipse gear…
And we hit the road…
Of course we visited my favorite restaurant.
Three words: DUCK FAT FRIES. #bestthingIeverate
This is what grits should be. Holy smokes.
The Sierra Nevada Brewery over in Asheville. So perfect.
We went apple picking too.
Smile. Smile anyway.
On the smallish side. But check out the view!
Autumn in a basket. How about them apples?
Wagon rides courtesy of Dad.
We visited a Hands On museum over in Hendersonville, NC. Highly recommended!
The kids went camping with Gram and Grandpa. They had popcorn and even saw a fox!
And of course we saw the total solar eclipse! If you ever have the chance to see one, don’t miss it.
We stopped at a McDonalds and took our food to the lawn for a roadside picnic. There were a ton of festivals happening all around us, but I’m thankful we were not in a swarm of people.
Just us and dozens of people lining the roads and parking lots sporadically all with necks craned up, faces toward the sun.
I joked that my sandwich was the great eclipse of 2017. My burger sorta is what the sun looked like at that moment though. I think I’m funny, so help me.
Partial eclipse effects were so awesome: getting dark, the birds flipping out, the partial shadows that the eclipsed sun cast — and then the beautiful black hole sun cast a 360 sunset in all directions.
Cloudy but we still saw the total eclipse through the clouds — thank goodness!
Darker for sure! Just about 1 minute before the sun went black, the birds took off in a hurry across the sky cawing.
Sun shadows. Super cool.
Documenting the multiple mosquito bites we got:
Black hole sun! 
Venus? Think that little dot of light might be.
We had such a fun time, and I know I’ll remember this trip for a long time to come.
But then there was the traffic. The horrendous traffic. It took us an extra 3 hours to get home. 
I will say the coolest thing was when a van pulled alongside us and motioned for us to roll down our windows. We were confused but did, and they shouted: Hey Boggy Creek — How do you feel!!!!? Which is the beginning of a camp chant from the special needs Summer Camp my daughter attends. How funny is that that we’d pull along side fellow campers in NC of all places!!!
Seriously an 11 hour drive home to Florida looked like this.
Insanity but definitely worth it. We’d do it again in a heartbeat even with our sweet, giant boxer pup and three crazy kids singing Moana over and over and over.
EDIT: To clarify the dog was not singing Moana. Just the kids. 😛
#RoadTripSolarEclipse in the books!
