The sailboat we were on drifted further into Cape Cod Bay as the clear skies slowly became hazy.

My travel companion and I were just off the coast of Provincetown, Mass., far from the northwest-to-southeast path of last month's total solar eclipse, but we were still in for the party — in our case, via a pair of tickets on an 80-foot schooner. We peered through the filtered glasses we'd been handed on the dock as a black disc crept across the sun. We reflected the progress onto a cardboard canvas with a manipulated pair of binoculars. We ooed, we awwed. Three hours and a picnic lunch later, it was over — without any of the dark-sky dramatics found along the eclipse's most prominently visible path, which extended in a 70-mile band from Oregon to South Carolina. In Minnesota, the results weren't much different, with cloudy skies minimizing the effect.

Still, it's hard to argue that the experience wasn't spellbinding. Aboard our schooner, the captain's dog began shaking and anxiously glaring into the surf below — where we believed schools of fish were swimming wildly. Clearly, something highly unusual was happening, and the animals could sense it.

But if the first total solar eclipse in 38 years has given you Eclipse Fever even without seeing the full show, you're in luck: The next opportunity to witness such a phenomenon in the U.S. is just around the corner, at least given the perspective of the typical rarity of these events.

The path of totality for the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse will come up through Texas and run across the nation in an arc, exiting through Maine. Some lucky locales in Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky will be on the totality path for the second time in seven years. And if that doesn't work? There are a host of partial solar and lunar eclipses in the meantime. Check the website timeand date.com/eclipse for a full list.

Amelia Rayno covers food and travel for the Star Tribune. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @AmeliaRayno