'Outta this world'

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — As Monday morning eerily dimmed, cooled off and became quiet, Chet Jones broke the silence from his lawn chair on City Beach.

"It's outta this world," the Coeur d'Alene man said about the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in the United States since 1918. "Thank God it's not a cloudy or smoky day."

Jones was among thousands who headed to the downtown waterfront to check out the Super Bowl of Science.

The closer the moon and sun came into alignment, the quieter downtown and Lake Coeur d'Alene became as viewers dialed in on the special moment.

Most of the recreation activity on the water even came to a halt on a normally buzzing summer day.

"Listen to that calmness," Jones said, tongue-in-cheek. "Isn't it nice for a change? You'd think that there's a solar eclipse or something."

Viewing parties were held at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, The Coeur d'Alene Resort lawn, North Idaho College and other places to offer group settings.

Individuals and families set up in the parks with their best eclipse-viewing gadgets, ranging from glasses to homemade pinhole projectors to welding masks.

"It's cool that so many people came out for this," said Post Falls' Ben Bridges while photographing the spectacle through eclipse glasses at City Park. "Even though we're not at a party, we're in the most Coeur d'Alene of places."

Bridges said kindness ruled the morning as he spotted a woman who was handing out glasses to those who were unable to buy a pair in the weeks leading up to the event.

Coeur d'Alene's Gary Knaus gave his to a passerby at City Park midway through the eclipse.

"I want to pay it forward, but put them on your face now because it is at its peak," Knaus told the woman.

Coeur d'Alene's Dustin Shaw watched from a bench at McEuen Park and reflected on how he was pleased to have just arrived in North Idaho from southern Idaho, where many of the eclipse-viewing masses flocked.

"I had all the opportunity to see it in Boise," said Shaw, who moved here from Boise on Friday. "But I also had an opportunity to miss the traffic."

Other locals chose to travel south to the line of totality.

The Ramseys from Coeur d'Alene drove to Cascade for the experience.

Everett Ramsey, 11, described totality as "a portal to another dimension."

Other youngsters weighed in on the eclipse.

"When I look at it, nothing seems to move, but when I ignore it for awhile and look again I notice the change," said 10-year-old Chance Swanson while viewing at McEuen Park. "You just have to be a little patient, but it's still really cool. It makes you feel like you're at the center of the universe."

Coeur d'Alene Cub Scouts from Pack 3 made creative viewing devices out of paper plates, glasses and other materials in preparation for the eclipse. They earned special merit badges for attending the viewing.

"Not many Cub Scouts will have them," mother Cassandra Parson said.

Parents of the group purchased $60 worth of lottery tickets to get glasses for the Scouts.

"It was well worth it," parent Ashley Fields said.

The last solar eclipse in the Northwest was in 1979, when it crossed Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota.

Many adults remembered where they were during that time, but were more appreciative of the cosmic spectacle this time.

"I was a university student and 19 at the time, so now I'm old enough to understand that this is quite the happening," Coeur d'Alene's Julie Miller said.

Some viewers like Miller showed off novelty items to others. Miller had an eclipse stamp that went from dark to light when touched. It was on the envelope she was mailing to her sister in Seattle on the day of the eclipse.

Shaw said one feature of the eclipse that pleasantly surprised him was the length of the show, as it lasted about 3 hours.

"I thought that it was going to happen more sudden than it did," he said.

Shaw said it was a nice moment for people to come together and remember for years to come.

"It's one of those events that only comes around periodically that gets imprinted in your mind," he said.

Sitting on the lawn at the park, Coeur d'Alene's Tina Williams couldn't resist making a political reference about the large gathering.

"If you really think about it, this is as close to everyone being on the same page as it's been in a long time," she said with a laugh.

The Coeur d'Alene Resort sold out both its breakfast viewing party with music on the lawn with 350 attendees and its eclipse-viewing cruises with 800.

Singer Pat Coast chose his music carefully to capture the mood of the big event, breaking out songs such as Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow."

The library opened for its party at 8:30 a.m. but folks started to line up at 7 a.m. to receive one of the 225 glasses that were distributed.

"We were out of the glasses within 15 minutes," said Char Beach, a library employee.

The library offered crafts that included making a pinhole projector, an opportunity to see the eclipse on paper and reflected through binoculars, a live streaming from NASA and other activities.

"The library is the center of the community and an event like this doesn't come around very often in a lifetime, so we're thrilled that so many people came out today," Beach said.

Most viewers, including kids, appeared to be well-educated on the dangers of looking directly at the eclipse, but reminders were still delivered.

"Remember — you're supposed to put the glasses on BEFORE you look up," Pam Jones told her husband, Chet, at the beach.

Multiple parents were heard telling their kids that the next solar eclipse will be in 2024.

Coeur d'Alene's Molly Jacobs brought her 2-year-old son, Apollo Booth, and 11-year-old neighbor Skyler Halderman to McEuen Park armed with glasses and a projector made out of a Cheerios box and tinfoil.

Jacobs pondered life during the next eclipse.

"I may be taking a road trip (to the line of totality) because (Apollo) will be more portable by then," she said.