Monday, February 2, 2009

The Gem Show is Back!

Yesterday Steve and I went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show with our buds Carol and John. We started at Inn Suites, always the home base of some great dealers. I have the advantage of living with a Gem Show devotee, who has gone to the Show religiously for 24 years, so he even knows which rooms have the best dealers. Steve showed us a room with cases full of gold nuggets and gold in quartz matrix. I learned about a new mineral, called electrum, which is a combination of gold and silver. Electrum has an amazing range of formations, including some feathery specimens.

Besides seeing the rocks, we get to talk with people from all over the world. The gold guy is an Aussie, and I could listen to him tell bad jokes all day, just to hear his fabulous accent.

Every February, we're grateful that we live here and don't have to pack our bags, put the cat in a kennel and pay the exorbitant hotel rates to enjoy this phenomenon.

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