Total Solar Eclipse Charleston | offthebeatenpress.com

Thank goodness for my full-time job! Since my small business is my side gig, I don't frequently get to say those words, but this past weekend, I was so so thankful for my job. We have an office in Charleston and when I realized the city was going to be in full totality of the solar eclipse yesterday, I got way too excited. I talked to coworkers and snagged a place to crash.I headed down on Saturday morning and got to try some places that I didn't visit last year when I went. I spent the first morning driving down and wandering the Farmers Market downtown.I shopped and browsed (in the crazy humidity) until The Gin Joint opened.I tried to go last year, but the hurricane prevented me from wandering down that far into East Bay. Thank goodness I got there right when they opened too! It filled up.My first drink was Peaches & Cream. It was heavenly. I sat next to a lovely couple from Northern Virginia and bided my time dill dinner that night with one of my coworkers on Sullivan's Island. We ate at The Obstinate Daughter where I had an awesome pizza.The next day I headed to the beach nice and early. We had some low stormy skies so it was a little less humid than the day before.I began working on some sand lettering in prep for the eclipse the next day.I also had plenty of time to read and relax, this was a much needed day off for me.

A post shared by natalie kay (@ilovenataliekay) on Aug 20, 2017 at 9:40am PDT

After rinsing off and resting, I went to a local brewery called Low Tide at the suggestion of one of my coworkers. They had a sour beer that was to die for. They did something interesting to make it sour. This is the explanation from their website, "Instead of using salt for this gose we used naturally grown salicornia- aka "sea pickles" or "sea beans" found in the surrounding marshlands." Sounds so strange, right?! Well worth the trip to John's Island. The next day, I prepped for the eclipse with my two friends. We lucked out and got an amazing parking spot right by the boardwalk onto Sullivan's Island. We packed sandwiches and headed to the sand. It was a little overcast but the last twenty minutes before totality the skies broke for us to see the sun! I was so joyful. When it went dark, it was crazy. A storm had been in the distance, and we could so clearly see the lightning and hear the thunder in the darkness. The lighthouse turned on in the middle of the day and the wind picked up like crazy. One of my favorite parts was looking down. The sun was like early morning, but there were no long shadows. If you had a shadow it was directly under you. We even saw the little diamond glitter as the last bit of light dipped behind the moon. The day before, I had used that driftwood to make myself a makeshift shade. Now it was fully encompassed in shadow. Everyone erupted in cheers and hoots as the sky parted and sun disappeared. It was a really magical moment and I count myself blessed to have been in full totality in such an awesome city! Also, if you haven't picked these up yet, you can still get them before the disappear:

A post shared by natalie kay (@offthebeatenpress) on Aug 21, 2017 at 12:24pm PDT

The post office sells amazing heat activated stolar eclipse stamps! So cool– especially for nerdy stationery folks.

Travel: Charleston for the Total Solar Eclipse

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