Rock and Gem Expo

As we walked through the doors, I could only catch a glimpse of what was inside. All I could really see was people, lots and lots of people. My mom, my stepdad Dave , my boyfriend Kyle, and myself waited in line to get our tickets that my mom was generously paying for. I had brought about fifty dollars with me that day and was really hoping to get some neat stuff. As the cashier took our money and gave us our tickets, I couldn't help wondering if this would be the same as last years Rock and Gem Expo. As we walked through the next set of double doors my eyes lit up as I took in everything. A rock hounds dream was to be surrounded by all different kinds of minerals, fossils, and well,, rocks! There were so many different types it was hard to choose which ones I wanted to purchase and bring home with me. I started at the first table and I already immediately wanted to buy everything.. although I knew I shouldn't. I slowly moved on to the next table. The next station had even better stuff that I really wanted to buy but knew I shouldn't all of this was getting really hard.. but I remembered that I only had fifty dollars and that I needed to save it for the best and my most favorite items. After about thirty minutes of going around the whole place I had decided on a few items of which I could afford and it would still give me left over money for anything else I wanted. I went back to one of the first booths i visited and bought and geode that was cracked in two pieces and had what seemed like millions of tiny crystals inside of it. It was one of the most beautiful geodes I had ever seen in my life. Next I went back to the fifth booth I had looked at and found this gorgeous blue crystal looking mineral. As i looked at the tag it said Celestite, and it truly looked heavenly. I purchased it right away for fifteen dollars and was very satisfied with my purchase. I went over to the silent auction where people went around a table, and wrote what they would pay for a mineral or crystal on a piece of paper. When the auction was over who ever wrote on the paper last got the mineral for the price they offered. I won a small crystal called Citrine from the silent auction for five dollars, and it too was beautiful. I moved to the opposite side of the building with my mother where we looked at smaller polished minerals for fifty cents to three dollars. I bought a few small minerals from that booth and was fascinated by how many different types of minerals I had learned about today, and I never wanted the day to end. My boyfriend and I were observing some other booths when he found an item he wanted to take home with him which was a Sea Glass engraving. The engraving was a whale and some oceanic plants, it was a very pretty piece. Soon after, I walked over to where my step dad happened to be reading about some fossils, when we came across a man with a funny looking contraption. It almost looked like an over sized nutcracker, which is essentially what it was. He asked us if we wanted to crack open a rock to try to find one with a geode in it. I said I wish I still had enough money left to do so, which is when my step father offered to pay for me to crack open a geode. I was so excited and I thanked him. I went over and picked out my rock, not too heavy not too light. I learned that the heavier the rock is the more likely its just a rock and there is no geode inside. I picked one I thought was good, but after i cracked it, it turned out to be just a rock. I was sad, and I'm sure the man could see that for he offered me another go. With an excited face I thanked the man and picked out another rock, this time the lightest I could find. With a push down on the leaver, I cracked the rock in two and inside was a perfect and beautiful geode just waiting to be discovered. I thanked the man again and we went on our way, and I also turned to thank my step dad for giving me the opportunity to do that for the first time in my life. Sadly that was all the time we had left for the day, and the Expo would be closing up shop soon. I had three bags full of gorgeous rocks and minerals and I was completely happy with all of them. I really couldn't have asked for a better day.