Mia and I flew to Austin, TX to visit old friends and watch the April 8 eclipse from their back yard. This was the first total solar eclipse either of us had ever seen. Clouds came and went, but the sky was clear enough during the period of totality to give us a great view. We used eclipse glasses before and after totality, but took them off during the main event. It was spectacular. I took a couple pictures with the camera on my cheap Android phone, but they were disappointing: The corona completely washed out the moon’s disk. I knew eclipse photography was hard and was not expecting much, and did not let worrying about the pictures interfere with my experience of the event.