That's too bad to hear about the weather; I know the pictures are better-looking than just about anything that can be seen through a small telescope, but there's something to "seeing it yourself" too. (I suppose that made getting to look through the borrowed eclipse glasses significant; when I was using my binoculars I had my back to the sun...)

I can remember getting up early in the morning and being driven into the countryside just outside town to hunt for Halley's Comet. I think we managed to find it near the horizon. The viewing was better next decade for Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, anyway...