Party of one, your lawn chair is ready

Well, it sounded like a good idea.

I was excited to receive an invitation from a friend  to join his annual meteor shower watching party in Fairfax on Aug. 12. The plan was to meet around 8:30 p.m. in the flats and then caravan all the way up Bolinas Road to the top of the hill, hike into the open space a bit, set up camp, and wait until it got dark to watch the light show. We were told to bring something to eat and drink, flashlights and lanterns, a lawn chair, and maybe a blanket. 

I love being outdoors and enjoy looking at nature. I usually do these things during the day time, though, not at night when it's dark and cold. Still, I enjoy watching the stars and and this sounded like a fun party. Yes!

Of course I had to read about this meteor shower first. Here's what I found out: the Perseid meteor shower is a regular annual shower and can potentially be visible for weeks in the late summer sky, depending on weather and location. This year peak viewing was from midnight to dawn on Aug. 12 and 13, but you might still be able to catch it tonight!

This shower is named after the constellation Perseus, because the meteors appear to fall from the constellation Perseus, but actually they are debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle.  

While the meteors are bright, they are only tiny objects no bigger than a grain of sand. We can see them because they travel at speeds of thousands of miles and hour. Even two thousand years ago, meteor showers were observed and in ancient Europe the Perseid meteor shower was simply known as the Tears of St. Lawrence.

At first, we had about twenty star gazers planning on making the trek uphill to watch this annual show.

One by one, the group kept dwindling as people decided they had other commitments. On Thursday afternoon, the host called to tell me he had to fly to LA for a family emergency.  And oh, by the way, his San Francisco friends weren't coming because they didn't want to get lost up in the Fairfax hills.  Oh well, at least I had convinced some of my friends to come.

By around 6 p.m., however, several of my friends flaked too. By dusk, it was down to just me and the photographer.

But, when we were supposed to meet, William -- my photographer -- called to say he was still hung up at a photography job in San Francisco but I could count on him to get there later. He suggested that I go ahead and we would be in touch via cell phones.  

So, I jumped in the car and drove by myself to find this elusive meteor shower. I headed past the Fairfax Cascade gates, up the winding road on Bolinas, past Deer Park Villa, above the Meadow Club, and finally found the spot my friend had told me about, at the top of the hill with open space right in front of me.   

While there was still a little light, I parked -- in front of a sign that said  "no parking after sunset" -- and got my stuff out of the car. Not knowing how long I would be staying, I had a warm coat, wool scarf, gloves, lantern to light the way during my walk up the hill, a lawn chair, my little camera, my writing notebook, something to eat, water to drink, my pocket size Purell, breath drops, Kleenex, and even a blanket just in case. Of course I was already wearing jeans, hiking boots, a sweatshirt, and a fleece jacket.

They say it's been a cold summer, but you'd have thought I was headed somewhere other than temperate Fairfax.

I walked a few minutes, through the blonde weeds. When I got to the top, I saw no one. It was just me on the hill with the night sky above. The stars were just beginning to come out. The world felt large; I felt small. There was a perfect crescent moon.

After I got settled in the lawn chair, I just leaned back and looked up. The stars began winking at me. Not much happened for a while as I was trying to remember the names of the constellations my dad and the Girl Scouts had taught me. 

Finally, I saw a few shooting stars. Then a few more. Then a lot more, and my breath caught in my throat.

I sat there, alone, for several hours just watching the lights streak across the sky. Until, frankly, I got a little scared. What if I ran into people I wouldn't want to meet in the dark or even a mountain lion. I convinced myself that I could get a good enough show of the shower from my front porch in Fairfax, and I've never seen a mountain lion in my driveway.

After the 10 minute drive back home, I sat on my front porch a while and realized the view was not as good as I had hoped it would be. Off to bed.

But the night was not yet over.

Around 1:30am, William sent me a text telling me he was up there, finally, and already had some great shots from the camera he had set up by Alpine Dam. "And it's only going to get better," he said. The camera was set to take pictures by itself and he was lying on top of his car with his dog nearby.

Though I was almost asleep , the words "it's only going to get better" kept rolling around in my head.

So, around 2 a.m., I bolted out of bed, dragging my boyfriend with me, pulled on the hiking gear I had left in a pile, made sure the lawn chair and lantern were still in the car, and drove back up to the top of the hill.

This time, however, the party had finally arrived. 

Sally McFadden of Fairfax brought her sleeping bag in case she decided to stay on the hill all night. She looked quite comfortable, snuggled down inside to stay warm.

Former Fairfax resident, Colleen Cortright, had driven down from Napa. She's been watching the Perseid meteor shower for years. 

There was a sprinkling of other people too.  Outside of The Bachelor and Bachelorette shows, I've never heard the word "awesome!" exclaimed so often.

I never did find my photographer, though, who decided to stay down by Alpine Dam, but we kept texting each other, and you will see his fabulous photo -- and soon to come a video -- next to this article.

Though, for most of the evening, I was a party of one, I must tell you that I certainly enjoyed the show.