Take a Bite

But if you do, prepare yourself for a trip to the dentist! These fish are carved out of rock. Not very tasty I would guess.




We were at the National Gem & Mineral show in Billings, MT this past weekend. The local club has a show every year, but this time it was the National gathering. For us weirdos who love rocks, this was awesome!
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The display below is one that my parents put together from some of their collection of fabulous rocks. The one in the middle only comes out for public view for these special events. My late uncle found it along the Yellowstone river a very long time ago. It is a Montana Moss Agate and weighs in at 63 1/2 pounds. I'm sure that many of you may not know what an agate is, but they are incredible rocks that when cut open, can have many wonderful "pictures". If you find a good one it may weigh in at 5 to 10 pounds and depending on what's inside can be sold for hundreds of dollars. This big monster? It will never be cut, and we cannot even fathom what the cost would be on the market. Although my parents have never contacted the Guinness Book of World Records, they know for a fact that this rock would be number 1, as the current one (if memory is working here) is only around 30 pounds.
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We told Fritz when he looked at it, that it would be his when he is old enough to lug it around!

The show also had the Moon rock that is usually at the NASA museum. It was loaned to the club and was a big hit! How amazing to see something that you normally wouldn't!

And of course, there was some shopping to be done. The Hubs came away with a fossilized fish from a million or so years ago, from Wyoming (which we have wanted to plan a trip to dig these up for ourselves sometime). And I fell in love with the below pictured lapis lazuli ring. I haven't taken it off since Saturday! Every show I go to, I try to come away with a different kind of stone, and years past I have kicked myself for passing up the lapis. Lapis means stone in Latin and Lazuli is the passed down name for the ancient mine (mostly mined in Afghanistan) that these stones were found in. It's funny that the stones name is "Stone from Lazuli"!