People at Bonita and Barefoot Beaches watch solar eclipse

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Florida wasn’t in the path of totality, but plenty of people at Barefoot and Bonita Beach were ready to catch a glimpse of Monday’s solar eclipse.

“We do take it for granted every day,” said Donald Bruce, from Ontario.

“I’m just happy to be here experiencing it,” said his wife Mary Ann.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, blocking our view of the sun as the moon passes by.

“I think that it was wonderful. I came out to see the eclipse and plus get a sun tan,” said Teelicia Shepherd Brown of Bonita Springs.

“Just to chill out and watch the world change for 40 seconds…” added Bruce. “It’s just, it’s one of the things you have to experience.”

WINK News made their way to barefoot beach where some people had their safety glasses ready to go, but others say they couldn’t find any at local stores or public libraries.

“The peak, it was like a half moon with a yellow sun,” said Karen Wyerman, who is visiting from Cleveland. “The sun looked like a bright yellow half-moon with the moon being black around half of it; it was cool.”

WINK News met a lot of people, including Mary Ann and Donald Bruce who are visiting from Ontario.

“The coolest thing is the change of color of everything else around. Because here we have, we’re going to get rid of 60% today. The birds stop moving; everybody goes for that 60 seconds, everything slows down and time just sort of stops,” added Donald.

In Florida we saw only a partial eclipse, but people still appreciated the historic moment.

“It was just a small sliver of the sun that was covered, and then we watched as it progressed. It got to be about 50 percent, and it’s pretty awesome,” said Kathie Serbin.

“When we first got here, we kind of looked up and thought, oh, nothing is happening. As soon as we put the glasses on, we were amazed at what we could see,” said Suzanne Shingledecker from Ohio.

WINK News reached out to the city of Bonita springs and Naples, but they didn’t host any events for the eclipse.

Ether way, there were plenty of people out at the beach looking up, enjoying the sun and history.

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