thankfully the water was pretty clear

baby getting milk from mommy

There are many companies that offer tours, and they are not all as good. Having the right guide and a company that gets you there hopefully when all the other boats are not there, does matter.
In my case I was also interested in diving while I was there, so that steered me towards Bird's Underwater and that was a great choice: they were professional, definitely did the best to optimize our experience and in my case, I was lucky enough to be put on a 3rd boat with no one else since the other boats were full. Kudos to Bird's underwater for caring about our experience and not just shoving us onto another full boat to save themselves a bit.

pre-trip briefing

out expert guide

everyone was thrown in the water in groups, it was crowded when we arrived

Time to get in the water. I was a bit worried that the water would be too cold (21C), especially as they only offered a 3mm wetsuit, which I knew was way insufficient for diving, but turns out when swimming a lot back and forth at the surface, I didn't get cold and did not need to put the 2nd wetsuit I had requested just in case (and for the dive, later):

let's go :)

water was not clear unfortunately

The few I saw early were quick and not very clear water:

Most of the time in the water was ok but not great. The manatees were not that interested in interacting (which is normal, they are not here for our amusement :) ), and the water was so murky in places, that if one was by my feet, I could hardly see it. But around the end, the other groups had left, and I got super lucky with a baby that was curious and playful:

hello :)

ok, we're friends now ;)

This was the highlight for sure:

Got there early while they were testing the lights during the day:

Then back at night, when it's mean to be enjoyed. They did a good job:

Mice job, and scientifically accurate!

he still has a few books I should read :)

the list of movies for his 2nd talk

those doors were indeed portals to a 4th dimension we can't see as 3 dimensional beings

wizard of oz was wrong all along!

I never caught that one either

parsecs are a unit of distance, they can't be used for speed or time (BTW a parsec is 3.6 light years as I found out)

Gravity: haha, that's an easy one. It had lots of good physics, but also some glaring holes

As a bonus, he gave he attendees a hall pass for the next day if they were late :)

And I had no idea he was on zoolander 2 :)

It was another very fun night, very quick video summary:

That said I was driving back from Tahoe, so that remote location was on the way home and stopping there wasn't terrible. We arrived almost at opening time, but with offsite parking and bussing in, it did burn about 30mn. not ideal but we arrived in eventually:

Finally at the entrance:

It was nice to be in time for Adam Savage from mythbusters:

still has the passion

Fun to see coke and mentos again too:

The dark room was a fun time:

The LED Piano was great to see again:

I also loved the cuttlefish art car from burning man:

Plenty of other expos:

cool hat

electromage

oh my, I had one of those when I grew up

oh, I need one of those

how does it even? :)

cool idea :)

For some reason they also had cars:

This was fun enough, but the new location is not great, I hope they change it back to the middle of the bay area, I don't care if it has to cost more as a result.

Video:

It did not rain, and the sun came out just at the right time for the eclipse and went hiding in the clouds soon after. Timing was perfect. And I happened to capture some solar flares and mercury with my not so great handheld camera, so I'm happy :)

When I got out of the festival, partial eclipse hadn't started yet, but the sun was barely visible

Marc sent me the GPS location of his ranch, and GPS said I could barely make it and thankfully the roads were near empty

I pulled over a few times when the sun was visible for barely a minute

Most of the time, it was fully overcast, as per the forecast

but the sun came back out a few times

And in barely 50mn I made it to Marc's ranch and got to meet his family. We had just seen one another 2 weeks prior at beyond wonderland

all ready

fun thing is you can see a partial eclipse without glasses

getting there, so close

and yes!

even a decent shot frmo my cell

it got dark :)

I caught some sun flares on this one

on lower right, I think I you can see mercury. Einstein used it the lensing effect of gravity in his theory of general relativity

my best lucky shot!

and way too soon, it was over already :)

and the sun soon went to hide under clouds again, perfect timing!

The eclipse festival didn't end well, but the eclipse itself went way beyond expectations!

Video: