Bette Kurkis is joined by her grandchildren, Noah, Shelby and David Cressman, while checking out the eclipse from the Promenade.
By Donald Wittkowski
Ciara, Cate, Conor and Keegan McCloskey all put on a goofy looking pair of solar glasses, peered high into the sky and prepared themselves for a spectacular show that was out of this world.
“It’s really cool,” Ciara, 11, exclaimed while glimpsing her first solar eclipse with her younger sister and brothers. “It looks just like the moon, but it’s really the sun that we’re seeing.”
Carolyn McCloskey, of West Chester, Pa., brought her four children to Sea Isle City’s beaches and Promenade on Monday for an experience they aren’t soon to forget – if ever.
Around 2:20 p.m., when the eclipse was getting closer to hitting its peak in South Jersey, the McCloskey kids found a prime viewing spot on the beach to watch the bright afternoon sky gradually fade into a dusk-like grayness.
“It’s really going to get dark soon,” 5-year-old Keegan said.
On the beaches, the Promenade, the downtown sidewalks and at the bars, people all over Sea Isle were transfixed by the first solar eclipse in the continental United States in 38 years. The cosmic magic began shortly after 1:20 p.m., as the moon began to blot out the sun.
“It looks like somebody took a bite out of it,” Mary Carr declared of the slightly disappearing sun at 1:30 p.m.
Carr and her relatives, vacationers from Bloomfield, N.J., were enjoying an “eclipse party” on the patio of the Sea Shell Condominiums.
Just before 2 p.m., as the sky was turning a little darker, Marlene Ferrandino, of Philadelphia, thought things were getting a bit spooky.
“Oh, my, that’s awesome. It’s like Halloween,” Ferrandino said after emerging from the cover of a Promenade pavilion to take a look.
Maryanna Phinn, of Philadelphia, catches a glimpse of the eclipse through a viewfinder she made out of an empty cereal box.
A short way down the Promenade, the crowds at the Springfield Inn’s beachfront Carousel Bar were casually talking about the eclipse over drinks. Most of them didn’t have the protective solar glasses, so they simply watched the action unfold on a TV inside the bar instead of taking a peek outside.
“We like our eyesight,” joked Tony Ambrogio, a vacationer from Saddle Brook, N.J., in between sips on a beer.
Bette Kurkis is joined by her grandchildren, Noah, Shelby and David Cressman, while checking out the eclipse from the Promenade.
Bette Kurkis, of Woodbury, N.J., brought along solar sunglasses for her grandchildren, Shelby, David and Noah Cressman, of Mays Landing, to view the eclipse while standing on the Promenade.
Kurkis recalled seeing an eclipse years ago while vacationing on the Caribbean island of Antigua. However, Shelby, 15, David, 13, and Noah, 12, weren’t sure what to expect in the minutes leading up to what would be their first eclipse.
Later, they seemed excited, even though some clouds briefly obscured the celestial show.
“It’s cool, except for when everything was covered by clouds,” Noah said.
Tracie and Michael Levin, of Williamstown, N.J., used the eclipse as an educational tool for their 7-year-old son, Bryce. They did some research to find out when the eclipse would start, when it would reach its peak and how much of the sun would be covered by the moon in South Jersey.
“The sun is orange,” Bryce told his mother when she asked him about the eclipse.
“When the moon goes over the sun, what color will it be?” she asked him again.
“Well, grayish-orange,” Bryce replied.
“It’s going to be dark,” she reminded him.
Indeed, by midafternoon Monday, the sun nearly disappeared and the sky turned darker.
