We headed off to Tucson yesterday morning at 0800 hours with our friends Ann & Trent to go to the huge Mineral & Gem show in Tucson. Our friends Bruce and Connie planned to meet us there. We had a lovely trip down, took about 1 1/2 hours from our park to the Electric Park in Tucson where we wanted to start our exploring. You need at least 3 days to even begin to see all the rocks, minerals and jewelry on display! We walked for miles looking at so much our brains were hurting and I don't think we saw 1/8 of the displays that were all over Tucson. We have all determined that next year we will go down and stay for a couple of days in a motel so we have time to really see it all. We only bought two stones for cutting as we were just overwhelmed with it all and couldn't make up our minds! We went halfsies with Trent and Ann on a "newly" discovered rock called Sonoran Dendrite. Ann & I fell in love with the stone and roped the fellows into buying a rock for us. The dealer had cut slices showing what the stone looked like and finished pieces that had been polished. We were enamored!! You buy the rocks by the pound and the rock we bought was $81. Doug and Trent will slice it in the lapidary shop and then cut some stones in shapes for making jewelry. It is the most incredible stone I have ever seen and once they cut it, I'll take some pictures and post. Doug also bought me a rough Lapis Lazuli stone as I just love the deep blue color of the stone and he will cut it this next week also for making necklaces and rings etc. He also bought himself some diamond drill bits for drilling through stones to either thread for bracelets or to insert necklace clasps. I can't believe I didn't buy any jewelry for myself!! It was a totally fun day although very warm when we were at the outside stalls. We ended the day with a lovely dinner at a local restaurant and were home after dark. We were all exhausted and felt like we had hiked a 100 miles! We must be getting old
All the outside tents as we come into the exhibition centre
Sharon & Trent inside of a tent getting out of the sun for a bit!
Some of the many stone displays we walked by
All the balls are polished rocks as are the stands they are on
Rocks with rich copper content in them
Ann & Doug walking through one of millions of booths
Sharon & Ann looking at the rough rocks
Geode slices from around the world
More geodes of every color
Sharon & Ann looking at every rock they came across
Lapis Lazuli stone Doug bought for cutting. I can't wait to see it once it is sliced!
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