Excitement, awe fill Silverwood’s eclipse party

When Josie Montgomery told her mom a solar eclipse would occur on her 15th birthday, the teen’s mom was skeptical.

“She said, ‘You can’t believe everything you read on Facebook,’ ” Josie recalled.

That was months ago. Monday morning, the Spokane teen sprawled on a blanket on a grassy field at Silverwood Theme Park, watching the eclipse through a pair of solar glasses. Her mom, dad and a friend were with her. They planned to celebrate Josie’s birthday with an afternoon of rides at the amusement park. But first they watched the sun shrink, until only a glowing sliver remained.

“I think this stuff is cool,” Josie said.

The family got up around 6 a.m. Monday to come to the park’s viewing party. Parents, kids and grandparents spread across the field to watch the rare phenomenon. At the peak of the eclipse, around 10:30 a.m., Silverwood had 2,200 visitors, said Stephanie Sampson, the park’s marketing and communication assistant.

Laura and Jason Eldridge, of Langdon, Alberta, arrived at Silverwood around 6 a.m. The family of six was first in line for free solar glasses. The Eldridges had camped at Farragut State Park the night before.

“We’ve seen the shops on Black Friday in the States, and we thought there might be a long line for the freebies,” Laura Eldridge said.

She’s been trying to find solar glasses for six weeks, but the stores were sold out. Silverwood was advertising free glasses for the first 200 visitors Monday. Since the family frequently goes to Silverwood, they made the trip for the eclipse party.

Heather and Konrad Capeller, of Mead, and their sons, Collin, 8, and Kaleb, 12, also were at Silverwood.

“I love science,” said Heather Capeller. The family has been reading up in preparation for the eclipse, she said.

“The eclipse happens when the moon aligns perfectly with the sun, and you get a ring of fire,” Kaleb Capeller said.

Families watched the moon slide across the sun, speculating on what total eclipses must have been like for ancient people to experience.

Cooper Johnson, 8, of West Richland, Washington, checked the sun frequently through his glasses as the peak of the eclipse neared.

“It looks like a crescent moon,” he said of the sun.

“It’s going pretty quick,” said his mom, April Johnson, as she watched the sun’s progress.

Cooper is a “weather guy,” who’s interested in hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena, his mom said.

Several weeks ago, they watched a meteor shower from their backyard. Since they have season passes to Silverwood, mother and son decided to come to Silverwood’s eclipse party.

Sabrena and Matt Miller, of Spokane Valley, were kids during the last eclipse.

“I remember the one in 1979. We made the glasses in school,” Sabrena Miller said.

Her husband, a second-grader at the time, remembers using a pinhole viewer to watch the eclipse on the playground at his Richland elementary school.

After the peak of the eclipse, parents and children streamed out of the fields to the rides. For some, viewing the partial eclipse in North Idaho was anticlimactic. They were expecting dusk to overtake the sunny skies and a noticeable drop in temperature.

“I was disappointed it didn’t get dark,” said Josie’s mom, Peggy Garrett.