Good luck to you all - I made a special effort to go see the 1999 eclipse in south-western UK. It was totally worth it - an enduring memory that I cherish. IMHO 99% coverage is nowhere near 99% of the experience of totality.
I was on a headland on the coast, I set up a video camera to record us looking at the sun, so it was filming us and our surroundings. On watching the footage back you can pretty much see the umbra approaching us across the sea and then leaving again at the end. We never saw this at the time as we were focused on the sun itself. And yes, the gulls did go quiet - it was an eery, beautiful, engaging experience.