Tucson - Science Museum

Happy 30th Birthday Laura

Friday, we checked out the rest of the shows on Friday. They focused on higher end jewelry, beads, fossils and collector mineral specimens. A few interesting things to see such as the alien shaped skull carved in Labradorite.

I think I may have caught a bug or ate something that didn't agree with me. That evening, I munched on bread and attempted to watch a show on Hulu.
******************************************************************

Happy Valentine's Day

Saturday I felt much better and we got a lot accomplished. My home looks so pretty. She's been professionally cleaned, waxed, de-oxidized, and buffed. I cleaned the inside as the team was busy outside. Afterwards we toured a flea market, not much. We were attempting to locate our first tourist stop but didn't have our map. So instead we treated ourselves to Furr's for their Valentine special and then an oil change for the Jeep.

The Photo: Just a sign along the road to the store that reads: No Trespassing, No Swimming, No Fishing. Maybe there's water in them thar weeds during typhoon season.

I located a weekly entertainment guide that listed local museums, gatherings, shows, etc. We discovered that Tucson has many interesting aspects to its culture - Native American, Mexican, MDC (cartel), Buddhism, and world interests.

Among the listings, we found that the University of Arizona has a Science Museum specializing in Minerals and Astronomy that stays open late on Saturdays to allow viewing through their telescope. YAHOO-- I couldn't ask for a better Valentine date.

The evening of February 14th is an awesome time to visit a museum - no crowds. I played with the spectograms and other hands-on displays. Lots of fun. I enjoyed all the minerals. Appears we're sitting in the middle of copper mines which of course includes azurite, tourquoise and malachite. I also learned of silver, dioptase, meteorites and gold. Which didn't surprise me. I didn't realize that Southern Tucson has some of the best Wulfenite in the world - and it comes in all different colors even though the chemical make-up doesn't change.

I discovered Labradorite is just fancy feldspar from Labrador, Canada. Many, many specimens are a common mineral that has a unique characteristic and is named from the location it's mined.

The museum had an awesome opal specimen from Australia that replaced a pine cone.



And one of the first Mineral Identification books dating to the 1500's. I learned that Herbert Hoover and his wife were geologists who translated the Latin Mineral book which has become one of the foremost English mineral identification manuals in America.

We watched their planetarium program on Arizona skies. I felt much better after I learned that looking at planets & stuff through binoculars and telescopes will bounce around since earth's atmosphere is distorting the image. I always thought something was wrong with my eyes. No one else ever said anything about the image moving.

I enjoyed visiting with the astronomer the best. A volunteer manned the 16" telescope for visitors to look through. We saw Orion's sword or nebula of new stars forming and Saturn with her rings and moon - Titan. We discussed:

• the age of our solar system - apx 6 billion years old compared to 12 billion years for the universe. Both our sun and our solar system is middle-aged.
  
• And about constellations and that none of the Southern Hemisphere ones have mythological names.
  
• I enjoyed listening to how the Polynesians would travel north until they hit a certain star overhead, then just head East knowing it would take them to Hawaii. They couldn't use the North Star since it's always on the horizon if you view it from the equator.
  
• I also found it fascinating how many tidbits of info the ancients knew about the stars but did not have the technology to see.

I didn't realize it was Clint's first time to ever see the rings of Saturn. (Oh, and due to Saturn's movements, at times Saturn's rings appear to disappear.)

All in all, my Valentine's Day was productive, enjoyable and entertaining. I hope you all had a great day full of love, wonder, and happiness.

Tucson - Home Day

Thursday in Tucson. Sun's bright and so nice not to have smog. I visited the local Post Office and spent a good part of the day playing with cards and rocks and arts & crafts. Fun to be a little creative. Nice to see my floor again though and to have some clean dishes.

I enjoyed visiting with my daughter and getting a download on how her family's doing. I'm a little bummed that I can't be there to help Laura celebrate her 30th birthday. (If you're near Davis, CA on Friday, stop by to help her have a great day.)

I discovered Hulu tonight. Wow! I'll have fun for a while. Over 80 shows in my queue. Some old movies and a few TV shows that I've missed due to no cable or TV. I'm looking forward to getting caught up some of the series.

No fun photos today. I'll spare you the snapshot of what my floor looked like earlier today - covered with pens, pencils, stickers, papers, tape, envelopes, rocks, colors, etc.

Tucson - Aztec Fire Dance

We returned to the Native American Show to witness the Aztec Dance. Only two gentlemen were present and they only did a partial presentation saving their energy for a full fancy presentation for the Senior Citizens later that day. I fully enjoyed the honor of being present during their ceremony even if they didn't pull in the full spiritual forces nor were allowed to play with the fire.

I was fascinated by how visible the dancer's decor makes him, plus how loud. Reminded me of a lion or peacock. Extremely large feathers, rattles on their legs, loud drums, and hand rattles. They started the ceremony by blowing a shell into the four directions.

The elder shared a little about their history such as they prefer being referred to as Ingenious People since they were here first and they don't come from Mexico, they come from Aztlan - their name for their homeland.

The drummer was great with the drum. Beautiful tone and an awesome design.

Afterwards we did a little more touring of the shows including the new one at Holiday Inn. We want to check out the rest of the show tomorrow. This wholesale event appears to carry gold and high end jewelry. Fun to go through, but not much that I can afford to buy. I'm learning a few more terminology on fine jewelry. Gold appears to be very expensive at this time.

We finished the evening watching I Robot. Appears Clint and I may have caught a small bug and kind of puttering. His online business has picked up with the new additions.

Tucson - Largest Geode & Native American Show

We work up to snow on the mountains again today along with a biting cold wind. We stayed inside, did some work and then broke to see two more shows. I wanted to ensure I saw the largest geode in the world before it left. In my defense, I did see only the back of the rock when I visited the J.O.G.S. last week and it does look just like some large ugly rock from that view.

Today, we entered from a different lot with a view of the front side. The inside is beautiful! The cavity is large enough that a person could sleep comfortably (except the points) inside. The show was closing down. We picked up a few last-minute deals.


The Native American Show was much more enjoyable. Clint caught sight of a Mother Drum and this mask on a skull head while I was touring the crafts. We're curious if they'll be using it tomorrow for the ceremonial Welcome dance.

The quality of the items were magnificent and I loved visiting with the artists that created the items. I watched one gentleman as he was working on a beaded baby jaguar's head the size of a man's fist. Each tiny bead was precisely placed on what looked like a cardboard frame with no markings of any kind. The artist decided where to place the beads as he worked. We'll be returning tomorrow to see the finished product and to watch the Apache Dance.

This picture is an internet sample of the type of work being done. The artist's work is much more beautifully designed than this one.

I visited a while with a woman who makes beautiful pillows. She lives within a mile of where the RV's parked. Rosenta shared a couple of funny stories, a little of her history, and her shopping trip to the Garment Shows in LA.

We finished our evening listening to a recording of a workshop our friends left with us. Very informative and helped me feel like I was still part of home.

Personal: Many messages on sharing my wisdom with others.

Tucson Work Day

Work day. After 3 days of playing and shopping, responsibilities needed to be caught up on. Boring. Except for an outing to the local store to make a return and buy meat, we've been inside sitting taking care of bills, inventory, etc. No exciting photos to place.

The wind's felt like a blistering wintry wind....too uncomfortable to sit outside to do work. The snow's melted on the mountains and the body's slowly recovering from too much fun last night. (I have sympathy for our guests who are traveling and visiting relatives.)

Personal - My cards were too closely connected with a clear message of "evolving the past to step forward to a new level of spiritual apprenticeship". A little more of living in the wisdom I've learned from life....and sharing the gifts of knowledge & experience & insight. I'm ready for more, yet hesitant on the responsibilities.

I'm utilizing the free day to read, write, research and maybe even watch a TV show. Research-wise, I'm assisting Clint (and myself) with recording info on stones for his website. Tomorrow - hmmm, I want to check out a new show and maybe do a few more chores.

Sat/Sun - Tucson Gem Shows & Farkle

Whew! We've seen so many shows this weekend and we've only hit 1/4 of the shows here in Tucson. I'm looking forward to going to two more shows opening this coming week. They're both public showings and hopefully educational. Then... I'm hitting the local museums and nature.

Saturday was walking miles of the multiple shows at the hotels along I10. They were mixed with retail and wholesale items from all over the world. We enjoyed many, many, many hours of crystals, spheres, carvings, minerals, books, Egyptian, Tibetan, African and Oriental items. Felt like an international bazaar. Lots of
fun.

PHOTOS: crystal spheres from Brazil; carved dragon from China; quartz carvings

Sunday we woke to snow on the mountains. The days was spent touring the large wholesale shows which contained stones, minerals and silver jewelry. We met other Sacramentians here taking advantage of the great sales. I picked up some tokens for loved ones and enjoyed all the views.




And of course, what would a visit with our friends be without our Farkle Nights. Since Clint's "vision quest", he's been rolling unbelievable 'miracle' rolls for the last two nights. Saturday he won every game except one....and he only lost that one because of a 6-dice farkle rule that allowed me to steal his winning score.

We've had a wonderful 3 days visiting and shopping. Wishing our friends a great trip home.

Day 12 - Tucson; Mineral & Rock Shopping

The business owners went shopping today. We only made it through one of the venues, but they accomplished a lot. Many folks from India were happy to make a sale. I'm now sitting in my home surrounded by Amethyst, Quartz, Carnelian, Pyrite, Stromalite, Vesuvanite, Tibetan, wands, pendulums, pendants, star quartz (pictured), fossils, apophylite, astrophyllite, tourmaline, obsidian, blue halite, moldavite and others. Beautiful samples.

I went Easter Egg hunting for stones today. As I walk around the pool area, I'd find all sorts of loose stones laying around. These were tumbled stones that probably fell out of crates being moved to the rooms. (Yes, many, many hotels in Tucson sell out their rooms for individual vendors to set up as stores to sell their wares. Over 90% of the folks are international primarily from India, Russia, and Brazil.)

One of the shops had custom-made wands with matching crowns. They were very unique and beautiful. Our visiting friend posed for us. (Yep, the wand is heading back to Fair Oaks. It really helps that it also serves very well as a beautiful fan.) She LOVES crystals and tends to get high around them. This photo was taken after playing 6 hours with stones.


PERSONAL: Today was fun. I enjoyed looking at all the stones and crystals in depth. And playing with the carvings. It was nice growing through all the stones slowly to fully appreciate them. I may have to go back to purchase myself a moldavite pendant. They have some beautiful pieces and I enjoy the astral connections to the meteorite.