Six Flags and an Ecllipse

A couple of weekends ago, Chris, the boys, and I, met up with her cousin and his family at Six Flags. I had never met this cousin of Chris's before and it had been years since she last saw him, but both of our families had recently moved to Missouri. He had mentioned on Facebook that he and his family sometimes sought refuge from the small town they live in at Six Flags near St. Louis. I commented that perhaps I need to take Chris and my boys there sometime soon, to which he suggested we meet his family there.

It turned out to be a great idea. We took turns with watching kids and going on rides that Tsunami and their littlest were too young to ride. Chris and I even took the chance to get one rollercoaster's worth of alone time while we rode the American Thunder and we returned the favor for them.

It was a Sunday so the park was not too busy. Most lines were less than fifteen minutes to get on. By mid afternoon, however, a storm was starting to roll in so those of us in line for the Xcalibur got sent away as they shut it down due to weather. At that point we all split ways and went home.

That night was the annular solar eclipse in which Earth's moon was supposed to cover the Sun and produce a 'ring of fire' effect. Chris was very excited by this event as she called it, "a rare opportunity in our lifetime," but was very disappointed when the clouds from the previously mentioned rainstorm covered the sight in the St. Louis area.

Luckily for us we got to experience it in some ways anyhow as everyone and their dog were taking pictures of the solar sunset all across world. My dad sent her a picture that features the shadow of the eclipse from his view point, which you can see to the left. The video below is from her friend Ricky and there were also plenty of pictures from both our friends and family on Facebook. So, although we missed the actual event, there was some enjoyment to be had photographically.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtKdTpJXr54&w=420&h=315]

All in all it was a fun Sunday evening, complete with Jen's lasagna we had for our family supper, which usually happens at their place near Tower Grove on Sunday evenings just so our two families can catch up.

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