TOLEDO, Ohio — When totality hit the Glass City Metropark in east Toledo on Monday, cheers rang out as fireworks went off in the distance. People said they were amazed at what they witnessed during the total solar eclipse.
"It was crazy, it was amazing, it was exciting," one kid, whose family traveled from Michigan, said, reacting to the eclipse. "I would wait another 20 years to see this."
Unfortunately, the next eclipse in Ohio won't come for another 75 years. One of the reasons people came far and wide to witness the event was its infrequency.
Julie Robinson made the two-hour drive from Battle Creek, Mich.
"It was absolutely worth it," Robinson said. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat."
Jeremy and Jaime Tunis, a father and daughter, came to Toledo from Wisconsin to witness the event.
"I was reading that the next one is going to be fully overhead Madison in September of 2099," Jeremy said. "I hope to live forever. I think this is a better bet."
Some people just had to go in their backyards or walk outside to witness the event, like students at Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo, both of which held viewing events on campus.
Photographer Brent Bacher drove from Detroit and spent hours setting up to get the perfect snapshot of the eclipse.
As a photographer, he said getting pictures of the eclipse is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he couldn't pass up.
"(I) think it's going to be worth the effort that I put into coming down here to do this," Bacher said. "I put in a lot of effort. My last opportunity maybe in my lifetime to see something like this. I started planning for it a few months ago, just getting things together to come down here."
The last total eclipse in Ohio was in 1806. The next one will be in 2099.