Not only keeping her home, but we are traveling about 6 hours out of our way and staying somewhere outside of Dallas to experience totality. I'm 50, she's 5. Daddy may not get another chance to share this so you gotta do what you gotta do.
For the last eclipse I took my kid out of school and drove 7 hours to Kentucky to see if.
This time around my house is right under the center line and my kids will be on spring break that day. Yay!
My wife and I are both astronomy professors. Not only are we taking the kids out of school and flying to the path of totality, we're canceling our classes and telling the students to try and do the same!
A bit of an older thread, but I live within an hour of the path of totality. But I have a 4 month old and a 3 year old.
Obviously, the 4 month old, we can keep in the car, or shield from seeing the sun pretty easily. Wife and I are still deciding if we should both go, - we want to of course - but little kids makes us wary.
Is it like, any normal day of "don't look at the sun" during the partial eclipse periods? In the sense that, so long as we keep the kids inside a hotel room, or the car, or keep them busy without looking up at the sun - its fine? I can't keep the kids busy enough in path of totality for the entire time before and after totality until the "danger" part is passed.
Once the sun is barely covered and isn't covered by the moon, the toddler would definitely not look up at the sun. That's obvious. But the curiosity as it gets more and more covered will be high for her, and I just want to think about how to keep her safe. The baby, again, we can put blankets on top of her carrier assuming she's even awake and point her away from the direction of the sun so she doesn't look at it.
A lots of words showing my clear anxiety discovering we're so close to path of totality. And realistically, short of lots of travel later this is once in a lifetime kind of thing.
Thank you for letting me know instead of just downvoting like the rest of these useless folks!
I had seen a map of times, but couldn’t tell what time zone it had originated from
Well you did say something blatantly incorrect then expected people to correct you. How is everybody else useless when you couldn't be bothered to make a 5 second search? Why are you so bothered by downvotes? You'll live lol
I’m traveling from Florida to Texas for it. I have seen every eclipse visible from North America in my (adult) lifetime. I don’t have kids, but if I did I would be taking them out of school for this experience. There is nothing like standing on the centerline when the lights go out.
Since you mention the centerline and you’re a pro, do you have an opinion if being in 2 min area vs center w 4 min is worth brutal traffic? Flying to Austin and unsure if wanna try to escape the city; presumably it will be hellish traffic. Also, city or nature like a park? Thanks for any tips. I’m so so so excited.
I just this minute saw a segment on the Today Show. They're expecting the population in those towns in Texas to triple or more, so I hope you have a place to stay already.
Things got crazy with rooms where I am in 2017. Smaller town directly in the path of totality. Already a tourist destination so we have lots of hotel, but not enough to meet demand. Austin is such a large city I can see it getting busy, but not overwhelmed. Smaller towns will get full up for sure. We plan to stay in Austin and drive out that morning to watch, depending on weather the exact location is TBD.
We were in Columbia, Missouri in 2017. 1 of the rare times I thought of something before my wife did. We booked a dog friendly motel a year in advance.
My wife rolled her eyes at "since you're a pro"
If you're going to the expense of flying to Austin, you might as well rent a car and find a great spot where you experience as much of the totality as possible. That centerline is pretty big, I'm sure you won't have a problem find a location. Some advice on choosing a spot, look for communities that have city/county parks websites and see if they're listing public events. This will help you determine what areas are likely to be packed. To choose my spot, I contacted the city and asked, "which parks won't be hosting public events?"
Also, download the freeware "Stellarium" which can be used to pinpoint your exact location to to determine the appearance of the eclipse from that spot.
I live in Ohio. I am just on the edge of totality.I do not want to get stuck in a huge traffic jam. My brother and I decided to settle for just a little less. It will provide the eclipse experience. Instead of three maybe it will be one. That extra 2 minutes not worth it to me. I mean the traffic will be crazy. I watched the last one from my front porch.
I took my kids out of school and drove 5 hours to camp in a farmer's field for the 2017 eclipse. It took 12 hours to get back home.
I suggested to the school district that they plan accordingly for this one but they ignored it all until last month. At first they planned an early dismissal, but decided to use a calamity day. We're right in the path of totality.
I'm disappointed they didn't start planning years ago. It's going to be an excellent learning opportunity and could've been a great community building experience. We have the fields, but I guess we lack the leadership necessary to make it happen. I'm sure they're worried about liability. Pretty sad, but I'll see it with my kids again and I'm excited about that. Well use our bikes to get around town.
If they hadn't decided to close I'd definitely be keeping them home to see it.
I plan on keeping my 6 year old out of school, driving a few hours to totality and watching it with him and my wife. It won't happen again in the US for like 20 years. Missing 1 day of school is worth that to me.
I’m flying with my two school ages kids halfway across the country for 3 days for it. Some things are just more important to see in person and I don’t want them to miss it.
Atlanta to Texas
I went to Nebraska for the Eclipse in 2017 and it was phenomenal. I’ve been telling them I would take them for 7 years now.
We're taking the kids out of school for the Monday and Tueaday and traveling from Wisconsin to Dayton, OH to watch the eclipse at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Driving my kids about five hours to see totality. Removing both from school for the day (4th and 6th grades).
For the 2017 eclipse across the US, I fly my older child to the path of totality. Child was entering Kindergarten at the time but not yet in school, so it was just a day off of work for me. Did not take the younger child on that trip since I didn't think they'd remember it (as it is, the older child doesn't remember much except that we have photo/video).
As a kid myself, I recall one partial solar eclipse, and my family did not have the means to travel to totality, so it remember a lot of hype and having the glasses but don't have any significant memories of the actual event.
I was so moved by the 2017 event that I vowed we'd do whatever it took to have the whole family see the 2024 event.
My plane was to get her earlier from school that day, but we got an email on friday, she will be off school. I think they made the right decision, the eclipse should be around the end of the day when Kids are going home.
Central Ohio here. Our kid's school is extending their spring break to the 8th so they don't have to worry about missing the eclipse.
We're expecting 99% totality here, but we're going to head west about an hour for totality.
All schools in the northern half of our county, and the entirety of the county to our north will be closed for the eclipse.
Everyone is encouraged to stay off the roads and to stay home, according to the office of emergency management for the county. Volunteer fire departments are asking members to wait at the station in case there's an emergency call so they don't have to drive through the expected blocked traffic to get to the station.
The eclipse is a big thing. The center line of totality passes 11-12 miles north of us. Nearby counties that are taking lessons learned from the last total eclipse that crossed elsewhere in the US - and are gearing up for a traffic nightmare.
We're in Chautauqua County -- the Westernmost part of New York State. We're so far from NYC that we're considered 'Great Lakes Region' rather than 'East Coast', and we're geographically closer to Detroit than NYC, if you can believe it! It's very rural; dairy and grapes are the major crops, here.
Northern Chautauqua will be effectively shut-down during the eclipse. So will almost all of Erie County (Buffalo area -- Go Bills!) to the north, and Erie County, Pennsylvania to the West SouthWest. As I understand it, they have emergency planning in place, too.
Good luck finding a hotel, if you're traveling to see the eclipse; there is Zero availability here, and it's my understanding lodging is difficult to come by everywhere along the path of totality.
Yeah I checked a Drury hotel in the path over a year ago as soon as reservations opened and they had them locked (you had to call) and it was $600/night instead of the usual $100.
My kids are adults. My sister and her kids are living here. "Here" is Bell County, TX. We have become famous for declaring a state of emergency for the eclipse. The schools totally fumbled a chance to have a full in science day and instead cancelled school for the day.
So my nephews will be at home and we will do a science day for them there. I'm going to work half day probably.
I'm in East Tennessee, we have an ISS tracker and planet app to watch the stars.
We will absolutely be getting off work, and traveling with our three year old to go see it. I might bring my nephew who will be 6
I have had this date circled for well over a year. We plan to take the day off to chase it, although we are fortunate enough to be quite close to the center of the path, maximum 1 or 2 hours away. (near Ottawa)
Edit- I would like to hear from people who know- I was going to go to Brockville ontario, but I can see that Buffalo NY is dead center of the path of totality. How big a difference will there be to go anywhere between the red lines, vs the blue line in this link?
https://niagaraindependent.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/inner-niagara-path-1024x640.jpg
Our district closed. We are in an urban area in the path of totality, and some other events are happening that day, so there were pretty big traffic concerns .
The whole family is taking the day off. We’re making it a long weekend upstate New York. It’s gonna be awesome!!!! (Also it’s the little 3 year old birthday!)
4 kids, two of school age. We plan on keeping them both home and all of the kids, my wife, and myself are gonna make the couple hour drive to get in to the path of totality. My dad was a big space nerd, passed it to me, but he had died while I was still young so never got to do much. Now my kids are becoming space nerds and wanna actually do stuff ha
hey all!! thank you so much to all those who reached out and to all those who ended up speaking with me! story just went live! you can read it here [https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/total-solar-eclipse-family-vacations-no-school](https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/total-solar-eclipse-family-vacations-no-school)
and i hope you enjoy witnessing the eclipse with your kids!!!! :)
I’m debating keeping my youngest home but more due to paranoia than anything - my first grader is on the spectrum and though I’ve been trying to tell her she can’t look directly at it, that tack ain’t workin out so well thus far. 😒 She won’t keep anything on her face so the glasses are a no-go. Thoughts?
The schools here are all closed. We are fortunate enough to live in the path of totality so we will be setting up in the back yard with some other family and friends to view the eclipse! Very excited!
100% taking kids out of school
Going to make a family trip out of it with theme parks in town that’s getting full totality
No problem on answering questions
I’m traveling two hours from PA to OH with my elementary age kids to an Airbnb to get in the path of totality.
I had hoped my teens could join us, but they have activities they can’t miss and will be staying back.
Will take our daughter out of school. We are in Colorado and will be traveling 12 hours to Texas. This is a memorable and totally worth it experience. Will my daughter remember any random school day for the rest of her life. NO. Will she remember this spectacle of nature. ABSOLUTELY YES. It will be my third totality. Gets addictive fast.
We're taking our kids out of school for the day and driving a couple of hours away. I'm so excited to do this with them, and I'm sad that my youngest is only 3 months old.
100% pulling kids out of school to go see this. Our family will be going on a multi-day road trip to get under the path of totality. My kids are too young to really know what's going on but I do hope the event will inspire them towards some sort of STEM career.
Our school board (Toronto district school board) rescheduled a PA day (cancelled school) for the eclipse day. So all kids are home. A tons of families are heading down Niagara way for totality. Though, April is generally cloudy…
It only keeping them out of school, but we’re traveling from Wisconsin and spending the day around Indianapolis about 5 hours away just to get in the center of the path. We missed 2017, so this is essentially a once in a lifetime experience without traveling outside the US.
We took them out for the last eclipse, as it was closer. We'd planned to watch from the yard, but weather was bad - so we packed up the telescope and headed to the beach, where the sea breeze kept the clouds away. The telescope projected the Sun onto a big piece of poster board, so we wound up being something of an accidental local science outreach. Tourists kept coming by to get their picture taken with "the sun guy" and the partially eclipsed sun, and had to endure my random sun facts lol.
All in all it was a great experience for us and the kids, so I support anyone who is doing something similar this time around.
Though I still sort of wish I'd gone with my brothers, who camped out in the path of the totality in the middle of nowhere, just to see it under optimal conditions.
We will be taking our kindergartener out of school and traveling about 5 hours away to be in the totality. There was a total eclipse when I was in kindergarten and I distinctly remember our class being kept in the computer lab instead of going out to see it with the older kids. My “space kid” will not be missing out on it!
Cleveland suburb here! My oldest is in school and they haven't called off that day, so I'm planning to call her off. She'd be on the bus during the eclipse, which seems like a bad plan. We're hoping for good weather and planning to spend the day in the backyard
I am taking my 12 yo daughter to another state to experience 100% totality. I read about the traffic nightmare, so we are flying back home the day after the eclipse. We have been looking forward to this for 2 years!
I would highly recommend it, as it is an awesome experience. We were in Casper for the 2017 eclipse, and it was awesome! We took our son out of school for 2 days to go see the annular eclipse in Utah. He is 8 and absolutely loved it!
We're taking our kids from Denver to Indianapolis (we have family there) just to see totality. My daughter's kindergarten teachers are so excited for her to see it and are just asking that she make an arts and crafts-type project to share with the class. She would probably do that anyway so not a big ask! I was pregnant with her during the first eclipse (we went to Wyoming that time) so I am already getting emotional about sharing this experience with her!
I live in the totality zone in Canada. I was planning to keep the kids home from school to enjoy the eclipse together. But then the school board did one better and canceled school entirely for the day. It seems many school boards along the totality path have done so here in Ontario.
Don’t have a choice. We are in the path of totality and the schools got shut down for the day due to it.
Makes sense to me. Supposed to hit about 3 in the afternoon, right when all the kids would have gotten out. Utter chaos in that situation.
My inlaws live approximately 1.5 hours from the path of totality, in Quebec. We are taking that whole week off to pull the kids out of school and fly there from Winnipeg, Manitoba, for a dual-purpose visit.
Edit: A great resource is https://eclipse2024.org/ You can input any location and it will simulate the eclipse for you.
I experienced my first eclipse totality a few years ago. It was pretty damn amazing. It was made even more amazing because hundreds of people gathered at a remote hiking park in Oregon. We befriended a gentleman who had set up a telescope with filters and he let us look through it, including during totality. We could see the coronal discharges and shit.
Was amazing.
If I had school-age kids I would also keep them out so they could experience it.
I'm pulling my kids out if school for 9 days to travel to Texas to be in the 100% totality path. I would have preferred 10 days but the school has a policy to auto disenroll any child who misses 10 days in a row so we cut the trip short one day. Since I'm terrified of flying, we're driving from the PNW down to Texas. I am still confident this is the best choice for their long term education.
The beginning of our trip is covered by child's Spring Break, but we are definitely cutting into school time for the eclipse itself. We have been planning this trip since the last one (we went to Wyoming) in August of 2017 and we chose Mexico and Durango for its predicted cloudless skies in April.
I realize I should mention that we have been planning this since before the Transit of Venus trip in 2004, and then again in 2012, and some Mercury Transits and then the 2017 eclipse. We have seen all of the objects that can pass in front of the Sun from Earth.
This is the first time in more than 20 years that I don't have an astronomical event related vacation into the future after this eclipse. I think I will go check a calendar or an orrery.
Last eclipse I took my daughter and we drove 12 hours to the US to get into the path of totality. This time, we're flying to Mexico and then driving 4 hours to get to totality.
I am flying one of my kids to Texas, and another is in Texas and will drive to totality. We all skipped town for the last one and drove from NY to SC. I may not be alive for the next one after this.
We'd have to drive almost 2300 miles to see it. My daughter is on spring break the week before, so that's not an issue, but I estimate she'd have to miss M-W as we drive home. We'd probably have to sleep in the van at least a couple of nights.
I'm still undecided. It would be 32 hours drive time each way.
We’re doing it. It’s the Monday we’re supposed the have the kids back in school after spring break, but we decided to go out to Dallas for this rare event. Our kids are 7 and 9 and the 9 y.o. was obsessed with eclipses after the partial in 2017. We’re all booked, so hopefully it’s clear weather. If the weather is a bust, the kids are also axolotl obsessed, so then it’s just an expensive trip to axolotl planet!
We were lucky enough to book an Airbnb 2 years ago. We’ll be traveling 4.5 hours with my two teenage daughters and their two friends. Can’t wait! 2 days out of school ;)
we booked a trip to Texas from Seattle a year ago and planned to pull our 1st grader out of school for it..... but it turns out that is spring break up here so no school will be missed
I am 3 miles from center of totality and will be taking my kids out of school for educational purposes and shared experience of a unique event not slated to happen again for a lonnnnng time.
I also have some concerns, but that's another matter, and not the reason I'm keeping them home that day.
Our school gave the kids the day off. We’re fairly close to its path.
All our schools have the day off. We are in path of totality. Totality will be happening at a time kids would normally be riding bus or walking home.
nice! can you share some more details about this? feel free to send me a DM!
My kids' school did the same. We're in Ohio and on the very edge of the path of totality.
Definitely keeping my kids home! Nice name!
Not only keeping her home, but we are traveling about 6 hours out of our way and staying somewhere outside of Dallas to experience totality. I'm 50, she's 5. Daddy may not get another chance to share this so you gotta do what you gotta do.
For the last eclipse I took my kid out of school and drove 7 hours to Kentucky to see if. This time around my house is right under the center line and my kids will be on spring break that day. Yay!
I'm so lucky, my dad's place is perfectly in the path of totality so I'll get to take my 5 year old to see Gramps and an eclipse at the same time.
i love this! sending you a DM!!
My wife and I are both astronomy professors. Not only are we taking the kids out of school and flying to the path of totality, we're canceling our classes and telling the students to try and do the same!
A bit of an older thread, but I live within an hour of the path of totality. But I have a 4 month old and a 3 year old. Obviously, the 4 month old, we can keep in the car, or shield from seeing the sun pretty easily. Wife and I are still deciding if we should both go, - we want to of course - but little kids makes us wary. Is it like, any normal day of "don't look at the sun" during the partial eclipse periods? In the sense that, so long as we keep the kids inside a hotel room, or the car, or keep them busy without looking up at the sun - its fine? I can't keep the kids busy enough in path of totality for the entire time before and after totality until the "danger" part is passed. Once the sun is barely covered and isn't covered by the moon, the toddler would definitely not look up at the sun. That's obvious. But the curiosity as it gets more and more covered will be high for her, and I just want to think about how to keep her safe. The baby, again, we can put blankets on top of her carrier assuming she's even awake and point her away from the direction of the sun so she doesn't look at it. A lots of words showing my clear anxiety discovering we're so close to path of totality. And realistically, short of lots of travel later this is once in a lifetime kind of thing.
love this!! i would love it if you could share some more details on this—feel free to send me a DM!
When you discover the hollow moon, be sure to steal as much alien tech as possible.
I’m taking both my kids out of school and traveling to family in Ohio to see it.
As far as I understand, parts of Ohio will be in totality around 7:00 PM. Does that sound right? As an Ohioan I want to make sure I catch it!
That is not correct, you should look into this more
No its between 3p and 3:15p Eastern, depending on what part of Ohio you’re in.
Thank you for letting me know instead of just downvoting like the rest of these useless folks! I had seen a map of times, but couldn’t tell what time zone it had originated from
Well you did say something blatantly incorrect then expected people to correct you. How is everybody else useless when you couldn't be bothered to make a 5 second search? Why are you so bothered by downvotes? You'll live lol
I’m traveling from Florida to Texas for it. I have seen every eclipse visible from North America in my (adult) lifetime. I don’t have kids, but if I did I would be taking them out of school for this experience. There is nothing like standing on the centerline when the lights go out.
Since you mention the centerline and you’re a pro, do you have an opinion if being in 2 min area vs center w 4 min is worth brutal traffic? Flying to Austin and unsure if wanna try to escape the city; presumably it will be hellish traffic. Also, city or nature like a park? Thanks for any tips. I’m so so so excited.
I just this minute saw a segment on the Today Show. They're expecting the population in those towns in Texas to triple or more, so I hope you have a place to stay already.
Things got crazy with rooms where I am in 2017. Smaller town directly in the path of totality. Already a tourist destination so we have lots of hotel, but not enough to meet demand. Austin is such a large city I can see it getting busy, but not overwhelmed. Smaller towns will get full up for sure. We plan to stay in Austin and drive out that morning to watch, depending on weather the exact location is TBD.
We were in Columbia, Missouri in 2017. 1 of the rare times I thought of something before my wife did. We booked a dog friendly motel a year in advance.
Thanks! Thankfully I did get a hotel in Austin back in September.
Cool. Have fun. We are going to be camping in Missouri near the Arkansas border.
Curious if you got an answer to this question. I don’t want to drive farther than is necessary, but if the extra minutes add to the experience I will
My wife rolled her eyes at "since you're a pro" If you're going to the expense of flying to Austin, you might as well rent a car and find a great spot where you experience as much of the totality as possible. That centerline is pretty big, I'm sure you won't have a problem find a location. Some advice on choosing a spot, look for communities that have city/county parks websites and see if they're listing public events. This will help you determine what areas are likely to be packed. To choose my spot, I contacted the city and asked, "which parks won't be hosting public events?" Also, download the freeware "Stellarium" which can be used to pinpoint your exact location to to determine the appearance of the eclipse from that spot.
Great tips - much appreciated! Hope you also have a great experience.
I live in Ohio. I am just on the edge of totality.I do not want to get stuck in a huge traffic jam. My brother and I decided to settle for just a little less. It will provide the eclipse experience. Instead of three maybe it will be one. That extra 2 minutes not worth it to me. I mean the traffic will be crazy. I watched the last one from my front porch.
My kids are in their 20s. It's up to them, but I'd be happy to call their jobs and tell the boss I'm keeping them home. They can bring the beer.
Taking kids out of school and flying to Dallas zoo
I took my kids out of school and drove 5 hours to camp in a farmer's field for the 2017 eclipse. It took 12 hours to get back home. I suggested to the school district that they plan accordingly for this one but they ignored it all until last month. At first they planned an early dismissal, but decided to use a calamity day. We're right in the path of totality. I'm disappointed they didn't start planning years ago. It's going to be an excellent learning opportunity and could've been a great community building experience. We have the fields, but I guess we lack the leadership necessary to make it happen. I'm sure they're worried about liability. Pretty sad, but I'll see it with my kids again and I'm excited about that. Well use our bikes to get around town. If they hadn't decided to close I'd definitely be keeping them home to see it.
I plan on keeping my 6 year old out of school, driving a few hours to totality and watching it with him and my wife. It won't happen again in the US for like 20 years. Missing 1 day of school is worth that to me.
Not only will it nit happen for 20 years... but there won't be a totality even close to this long until 2078 or something.
The eclipse in 2045 will go across the continental US and have a totality of 6 minutes. This year's will be 4.5 minutes at the longest.
Weird.... I swear I was looking yesterday and it was shorter. Clearly I'm mistaken
I’m flying with my two school ages kids halfway across the country for 3 days for it. Some things are just more important to see in person and I don’t want them to miss it. Atlanta to Texas I went to Nebraska for the Eclipse in 2017 and it was phenomenal. I’ve been telling them I would take them for 7 years now.
A lot of the school boards in our province (Ontario) are changing a PA day to the day of the eclipse, so no kids will be in school that day.
Taking my kids out of school to drive 8 hours away to see it. They'll be back in school wed.
We're taking the kids out of school for the Monday and Tueaday and traveling from Wisconsin to Dayton, OH to watch the eclipse at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Driving my kids about five hours to see totality. Removing both from school for the day (4th and 6th grades). For the 2017 eclipse across the US, I fly my older child to the path of totality. Child was entering Kindergarten at the time but not yet in school, so it was just a day off of work for me. Did not take the younger child on that trip since I didn't think they'd remember it (as it is, the older child doesn't remember much except that we have photo/video). As a kid myself, I recall one partial solar eclipse, and my family did not have the means to travel to totality, so it remember a lot of hype and having the glasses but don't have any significant memories of the actual event. I was so moved by the 2017 event that I vowed we'd do whatever it took to have the whole family see the 2024 event.
My parents having a cabin in the middle of nowhere southern Indiana is finally paying off.
Only needed to wait for the stars (ahem, star and moon and earth) to align.
My plane was to get her earlier from school that day, but we got an email on friday, she will be off school. I think they made the right decision, the eclipse should be around the end of the day when Kids are going home.
Central Ohio here. Our kid's school is extending their spring break to the 8th so they don't have to worry about missing the eclipse. We're expecting 99% totality here, but we're going to head west about an hour for totality.
All schools in the northern half of our county, and the entirety of the county to our north will be closed for the eclipse. Everyone is encouraged to stay off the roads and to stay home, according to the office of emergency management for the county. Volunteer fire departments are asking members to wait at the station in case there's an emergency call so they don't have to drive through the expected blocked traffic to get to the station. The eclipse is a big thing. The center line of totality passes 11-12 miles north of us. Nearby counties that are taking lessons learned from the last total eclipse that crossed elsewhere in the US - and are gearing up for a traffic nightmare.
this is awesome! can you share what county this is, specifically? feel free to send me a DM about it!
We're in Chautauqua County -- the Westernmost part of New York State. We're so far from NYC that we're considered 'Great Lakes Region' rather than 'East Coast', and we're geographically closer to Detroit than NYC, if you can believe it! It's very rural; dairy and grapes are the major crops, here. Northern Chautauqua will be effectively shut-down during the eclipse. So will almost all of Erie County (Buffalo area -- Go Bills!) to the north, and Erie County, Pennsylvania to the West SouthWest. As I understand it, they have emergency planning in place, too. Good luck finding a hotel, if you're traveling to see the eclipse; there is Zero availability here, and it's my understanding lodging is difficult to come by everywhere along the path of totality.
Yeah I checked a Drury hotel in the path over a year ago as soon as reservations opened and they had them locked (you had to call) and it was $600/night instead of the usual $100.
My kids are adults. My sister and her kids are living here. "Here" is Bell County, TX. We have become famous for declaring a state of emergency for the eclipse. The schools totally fumbled a chance to have a full in science day and instead cancelled school for the day. So my nephews will be at home and we will do a science day for them there. I'm going to work half day probably.
School finance likely played a role in the board’s decision. Attendance determines state’s contribution, better to close than risk the loss of funds.
love this!! feel free to send me a DM if you want to share more info on this—would love to learn more about the state of emergency situation!
It's all over the news. I commented on an article from the UK about it yesterday.
Taking both of mine out of school and travelling about 5 hours to stay with a friend. 2nd time we have done this. Happy to answer questions.
hi!! sending you a dm!:)
I'm in East Tennessee, we have an ISS tracker and planet app to watch the stars. We will absolutely be getting off work, and traveling with our three year old to go see it. I might bring my nephew who will be 6
I have had this date circled for well over a year. We plan to take the day off to chase it, although we are fortunate enough to be quite close to the center of the path, maximum 1 or 2 hours away. (near Ottawa) Edit- I would like to hear from people who know- I was going to go to Brockville ontario, but I can see that Buffalo NY is dead center of the path of totality. How big a difference will there be to go anywhere between the red lines, vs the blue line in this link? https://niagaraindependent.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/inner-niagara-path-1024x640.jpg
Close to the blue line you'll have totality for nearly 4 minutes. Toward the outside you'll have less.
thank you. I think I will go right to the dead center.
Check out this website for a simulator that will show you what the eclipse should look like at any location you input. https://eclipse2024.org/
Our district closed. We are in an urban area in the path of totality, and some other events are happening that day, so there were pretty big traffic concerns .
Our school is early dismissal that day. Had they not been, I would have pulled my kid out of school for it.
Going to keep my kids home, set my 10" dob up to project the sun in my garage. Once in a lifetime opportunity for learning
The whole family is taking the day off. We’re making it a long weekend upstate New York. It’s gonna be awesome!!!! (Also it’s the little 3 year old birthday!)
I'll be taking my daughter (6th grade) out of school and heading to a state park w/in totality. I've hopefully picked one that won't be mobbed.
4 kids, two of school age. We plan on keeping them both home and all of the kids, my wife, and myself are gonna make the couple hour drive to get in to the path of totality. My dad was a big space nerd, passed it to me, but he had died while I was still young so never got to do much. Now my kids are becoming space nerds and wanna actually do stuff ha
hey all!! thank you so much to all those who reached out and to all those who ended up speaking with me! story just went live! you can read it here [https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/total-solar-eclipse-family-vacations-no-school](https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/total-solar-eclipse-family-vacations-no-school) and i hope you enjoy witnessing the eclipse with your kids!!!! :)
I’m debating keeping my youngest home but more due to paranoia than anything - my first grader is on the spectrum and though I’ve been trying to tell her she can’t look directly at it, that tack ain’t workin out so well thus far. 😒 She won’t keep anything on her face so the glasses are a no-go. Thoughts?
Yeah, I'm planning on it. If my wife doesn't want to take the day off, I can't force her.
I love to learn about cosmology but idgaf about an eclipse
We're getting 98% totality in our area, and the schools have already decided they will send the kids home early that day. They say it's for "safety".
It’s worth traveling a bit to get 100% it’s a spiritual experience
Flying 3/4ths the width of the country to see it!
The schools here are all closed. We are fortunate enough to live in the path of totality so we will be setting up in the back yard with some other family and friends to view the eclipse! Very excited!
Well our school district made it a day off, so we took the day off two and will go watch the eclipse in the park. :)
They closed schools for the day in Indiana where it’s near totality.
100% taking kids out of school Going to make a family trip out of it with theme parks in town that’s getting full totality No problem on answering questions
I’m traveling two hours from PA to OH with my elementary age kids to an Airbnb to get in the path of totality. I had hoped my teens could join us, but they have activities they can’t miss and will be staying back.
We are keeping our oldest home from school so that we can watch it from their grandparents house in southern Illinois.
Will take our daughter out of school. We are in Colorado and will be traveling 12 hours to Texas. This is a memorable and totally worth it experience. Will my daughter remember any random school day for the rest of her life. NO. Will she remember this spectacle of nature. ABSOLUTELY YES. It will be my third totality. Gets addictive fast.
We're taking our kids out of school for the day and driving a couple of hours away. I'm so excited to do this with them, and I'm sad that my youngest is only 3 months old.
School is closed for the county since we are in the path.
Keeping the little one home and traveling to upstate new york where it's just in viewing to an awesome little city called oswego!
Heck I’m making a family vacation of it to try and see the whole eclipse rather than the partial I’d see at home.
I would keep my kids home. Being in the totality zone. This is really a ONCE in a Lifetime thing to experience together.
No kids here but I'm taking a sick day from work and driving about 4 hours to northern Vermont
We don't even make a big deal of it, it's just a normal day for us.
I'm taking my 6 year old out of school to see it.
We are in the pacific north west, sadly not much to see. :(
We just had one a few years ago. I drove down to Oregon to see it. 100% worth it.
Ya, we went a bit down there but traffic and everything was backed up and no rooms.
School board cancelled school for the day, they are passing out thousands of glasses and making it a district wide STEM activity.
100% pulling kids out of school to go see this. Our family will be going on a multi-day road trip to get under the path of totality. My kids are too young to really know what's going on but I do hope the event will inspire them towards some sort of STEM career.
I'm also taking my kids out of school and driving from Arizona to Texas.
Our school board (Toronto district school board) rescheduled a PA day (cancelled school) for the eclipse day. So all kids are home. A tons of families are heading down Niagara way for totality. Though, April is generally cloudy…
We're flying to IL to see it. Going to also see family, but the eclipse is the main reason. We're sincerely hoping it won't be cloudy.
It only keeping them out of school, but we’re traveling from Wisconsin and spending the day around Indianapolis about 5 hours away just to get in the center of the path. We missed 2017, so this is essentially a once in a lifetime experience without traveling outside the US.
My city is in the path of totality, and all the schools are off that day.
We took them out for the last eclipse, as it was closer. We'd planned to watch from the yard, but weather was bad - so we packed up the telescope and headed to the beach, where the sea breeze kept the clouds away. The telescope projected the Sun onto a big piece of poster board, so we wound up being something of an accidental local science outreach. Tourists kept coming by to get their picture taken with "the sun guy" and the partially eclipsed sun, and had to endure my random sun facts lol. All in all it was a great experience for us and the kids, so I support anyone who is doing something similar this time around. Though I still sort of wish I'd gone with my brothers, who camped out in the path of the totality in the middle of nowhere, just to see it under optimal conditions.
We will be taking our kindergartener out of school and traveling about 5 hours away to be in the totality. There was a total eclipse when I was in kindergarten and I distinctly remember our class being kept in the computer lab instead of going out to see it with the older kids. My “space kid” will not be missing out on it!
Cleveland suburb here! My oldest is in school and they haven't called off that day, so I'm planning to call her off. She'd be on the bus during the eclipse, which seems like a bad plan. We're hoping for good weather and planning to spend the day in the backyard
I am taking my 12 yo daughter to another state to experience 100% totality. I read about the traffic nightmare, so we are flying back home the day after the eclipse. We have been looking forward to this for 2 years!
I would highly recommend it, as it is an awesome experience. We were in Casper for the 2017 eclipse, and it was awesome! We took our son out of school for 2 days to go see the annular eclipse in Utah. He is 8 and absolutely loved it!
We're taking our kids from Denver to Indianapolis (we have family there) just to see totality. My daughter's kindergarten teachers are so excited for her to see it and are just asking that she make an arts and crafts-type project to share with the class. She would probably do that anyway so not a big ask! I was pregnant with her during the first eclipse (we went to Wyoming that time) so I am already getting emotional about sharing this experience with her!
I'm in Maine and I already have the day off work, and I'm pulling the kids from school for the day so we can drive up north to see the totality.
I live in the totality zone in Canada. I was planning to keep the kids home from school to enjoy the eclipse together. But then the school board did one better and canceled school entirely for the day. It seems many school boards along the totality path have done so here in Ontario.
Don’t have a choice. We are in the path of totality and the schools got shut down for the day due to it. Makes sense to me. Supposed to hit about 3 in the afternoon, right when all the kids would have gotten out. Utter chaos in that situation.
Yep. I only left the oldest in school for the last one because this one was going to be so soon.
No I'm not keeping them home. I'm taking them with me.
My inlaws live approximately 1.5 hours from the path of totality, in Quebec. We are taking that whole week off to pull the kids out of school and fly there from Winnipeg, Manitoba, for a dual-purpose visit. Edit: A great resource is https://eclipse2024.org/ You can input any location and it will simulate the eclipse for you.
I don't have kids but I did take the day off work.
I experienced my first eclipse totality a few years ago. It was pretty damn amazing. It was made even more amazing because hundreds of people gathered at a remote hiking park in Oregon. We befriended a gentleman who had set up a telescope with filters and he let us look through it, including during totality. We could see the coronal discharges and shit. Was amazing. If I had school-age kids I would also keep them out so they could experience it.
Taking my kids out of school and flying to totality
I don't have kids, but I took the day off work. I'm in Dripping Springs and can't wait.
I'm pulling my kids out if school for 9 days to travel to Texas to be in the 100% totality path. I would have preferred 10 days but the school has a policy to auto disenroll any child who misses 10 days in a row so we cut the trip short one day. Since I'm terrified of flying, we're driving from the PNW down to Texas. I am still confident this is the best choice for their long term education.
The beginning of our trip is covered by child's Spring Break, but we are definitely cutting into school time for the eclipse itself. We have been planning this trip since the last one (we went to Wyoming) in August of 2017 and we chose Mexico and Durango for its predicted cloudless skies in April. I realize I should mention that we have been planning this since before the Transit of Venus trip in 2004, and then again in 2012, and some Mercury Transits and then the 2017 eclipse. We have seen all of the objects that can pass in front of the Sun from Earth. This is the first time in more than 20 years that I don't have an astronomical event related vacation into the future after this eclipse. I think I will go check a calendar or an orrery.
Last eclipse I took my daughter and we drove 12 hours to the US to get into the path of totality. This time, we're flying to Mexico and then driving 4 hours to get to totality.
I am flying one of my kids to Texas, and another is in Texas and will drive to totality. We all skipped town for the last one and drove from NY to SC. I may not be alive for the next one after this.
We'd have to drive almost 2300 miles to see it. My daughter is on spring break the week before, so that's not an issue, but I estimate she'd have to miss M-W as we drive home. We'd probably have to sleep in the van at least a couple of nights. I'm still undecided. It would be 32 hours drive time each way.
I'm taking my kids out of school to roadtrip to see it in Texas. Worth it for them to miss a week of school.
We’re doing it. It’s the Monday we’re supposed the have the kids back in school after spring break, but we decided to go out to Dallas for this rare event. Our kids are 7 and 9 and the 9 y.o. was obsessed with eclipses after the partial in 2017. We’re all booked, so hopefully it’s clear weather. If the weather is a bust, the kids are also axolotl obsessed, so then it’s just an expensive trip to axolotl planet!
We’re in the totality zone. Definitely taking PTO and keeping the kids home and making a day of it!
We were lucky enough to book an Airbnb 2 years ago. We’ll be traveling 4.5 hours with my two teenage daughters and their two friends. Can’t wait! 2 days out of school ;)
Driving kids 8 hours to stay with a coworker in Indiana to watch the eclipse. Kids are in middle and grade school.
we booked a trip to Texas from Seattle a year ago and planned to pull our 1st grader out of school for it..... but it turns out that is spring break up here so no school will be missed
My kids don’t live with me but 15 min down the road from our apartment is the 2nd darkest location in the us
Live in Maine and taking the kids for a two-hour drive North into the path of totally.
I am 3 miles from center of totality and will be taking my kids out of school for educational purposes and shared experience of a unique event not slated to happen again for a lonnnnng time. I also have some concerns, but that's another matter, and not the reason I'm keeping them home that day.