Today we went to Rice NW Museum of Rocks and Minerals. We saw beautiful collections of minerals, rare gem crystals, petrified wood, meteorites, common & unusual rocks, and fossils. It was neat to see a baby psittacosaurus dinosaur's fossil. Yes, some of us even were brave enough to touch a coprolite (aka fossilized dinosaur dung  ). We also enjoyed the gallery of natural minerals that emitted magnificent colors when ultraviolet light shone on them. There was a huge area that displays numerous thundereggs (the Oregon State Rock) and sunstones (the Oregon State Gemstone). We were really impressed with a 70-pound meteorite, a 1,600-pound thunderegg and a 1,800-pound petrified wood.
This is our second time there and we love to visit again and again because there's so much to see and learn. We had a great time admiring God's wonderful designs. Outside the buildings, there's a "rock pile," consisting of agates, petrified wood, jasper, thundereggs, obsidian, quartz, crystals, etc. Each kid was allowed to pick a free rock from the pile. What a treat it was...to go through that pile of treasures! The gift shop was cool, too. We bought postcards (pictures of "petrified wood", "fluorite", "beryl", "gold", "pyromorphite", "rhodochrosite", "gypsum", "quartz", "malachite", and "azurite") and a ring (made from jade) for our daughter (early Valentine's gift  ). The kids plan to have a rock show of their own tomorrow. They do have quite a collection. Our fun field trip certainly rocked (and inspired  ).
"He alone is my Rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty Rock, my refuge." Psalm 62:6-7
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