The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

It was a pleasure having Kim visiting for the weekend, back from Chicago to Northern California for a few days. She was here to take part in the Olympic distance Wildflower Triathlon.

The site for the Wildflower was Lake San Antonio reservoir, between King City and San Luis Obispo. With limited accomodations nearby, many of the 3000 participants and spectators camped out at the state park along the reservoir, so we joined Kim and the bustling city of tents and RVs Saturday night.

Kim ran another successful race, finishing 4th out of 300 in her age group! See here for photos.


Posted by Dan 05/16/2008

It was immediately apparent that the $25 30 day visa in Indonesia was not long enough so we made an executive decision to stay for 31 days for a mere $20 extra. While in Sumatra we took a night boat to the remote Mentawai Islands south of Padang. There we stayed with a local Mentawai family and enjoyed jungle trekking and experienced traditional Mentawai medicine man rituals. It became apparent why all the medicine men are all so thin and wiry; the rituals go through the night and involve singing, chanting and dancing until you collapse from exhaustion. Then you repeat.

Mentawai medicine man dancing away evil spirits

Posted by nik 02/06/2009, revised 02/24/2009

Last Sunday, 3 friends and I went on a road trip to Bowen, a coast town about 3 hours south of Townsville. The drive was exactly what a road trip should be: having a great time on a sunny day with the windows rolled down, listening to fun music, and stopping along the road at anyplace that looks worth stopping for (polo-cross game, fresh produce stand...). It was the type of drive where you don't even really want to get to your destination because you're having such a great time on the road.

We got to Bowen, which doesn't have much to offer except for fruit farms, sugar cane fields, and a cemetary that greets you as you enter the town. But it's got beautiful beaches with nobody on them, and great boulders to climb around on. And that's what makes it a great place - it's a beach town that is not considered a "beach town."

My friends Ben, Hamish, and Rachel and I loaded up on fresh produce at a roadside stand on the way to Bowen, to last us the whole day. So we spend a glorious day on the beach, eating the juiciest, tastiest melons, manderins, oranges, green beans, and avacados, without proper cutlery, just letting the juices run down our faces and arms. It was wonderful. The food-highlight of my day, however, was the fresh-off-the-tree coconut that we enjoyed whilst sitting on the horizontally orientated coconut tree than hung over the sand, overlooking the clear blue water. It was picture perfect. We managed to bore a hole in the coconut and pass the goblet of milk around - so wonderfully sweet and smooth! Incredible! We then cracked our empty goblet open to scrape the delicious gooey flesh off the inside with our teeth. It was the perfect experience for a lazy beach day.

There's not much else to say about the day - just picture your perfect tropical beach day, and that was it.

But take a look at the pictures!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.543431242468.2132448.19700757&l=1bdca056dd

Ben, Rachel, Hamish, and me, enjoying our beautiful day

Posted by Whitney 06/25/2008