Dinner Rocks

Traditionally, when Jeff has to work on Saturdays (festivals, workshops, meetings, etc.) the boy and I spend the day together at a park, museum, or zoo. The last couple of years this mother-son time has slipped a bit since friends have become more prolific and homework obligations take more time. But, today we rekindled the tradition and spent some time at the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum. The place was rather small, but definitely cool filled with minerals and rocks of every shape, size, and color - even those you wouldn't expect to find in a rock.

The best part of time spent with my son is hearing his philosophical musings and daydreams. As we peered through the glass at spectacular displays of crystalline structures in fiery oranges and reds we pondered what it must have been like to discover such things so long ago.

     "Our next frontier isn't space, you know," he said nonchalantly. "It's the bottom of the sea. Just wait until they make manned submarines that go all the way to the darkest depths where they're sending robots now."
     "You're probably right," I agreed. "I'd like to the creatures at the bottom of the ocean as much as the creatures of space."
     "Me, too." Then, after a heartbeat or two of silence, "I think I was born too late. I would like to have been the one to explore the world and see what it holds. I'm sure there are mysteries left on earth, but they're much harder to come by these days."
     "That's true, but I don't think we've found everything yet." I said hoping to soothe this restless spirit of a man-child towering over me.
     "No, but all the glamour is gone. In ancient times everything about the world was mysterious. You could believe in magic and goddesses and sprites and woodland spirits. Nowadays, not only do we know how nature works, any kid in third grade science class can explain it. Where's the joy in that?"

While he did have a point about how much we know, we went on to discuss all the places he could still see and explore. "Just because someone has been there before you doesn't mean it won't be new to you," I said. The wisdom of this struck him and he mentioned the great pyramids, the Vatican, and other wonders left to be personally experienced. This - coupled with a couple of humorous displays about mining - lifted his mood. We wrapped up the tour with a look at phosphorescent rocks which are pretty mundane in normal light but sparkle in day-glo highlighter colors under a black light. Our final look at the world of minerals was a display of rocks shaped like food, which reminded us we were hungry and it was time for lunch!

Here are some of the yummy rocks we sampled with our eyes.

pancake stack - sandstone
bacon - quartz (agate)
Canadian bacon - rhyolite
eggs over easy - quartz (chalcedony agate)
coffee - garnet sand
whole wheat bread - granite
butter - sulfur
jelly - glass (man made)

banana - limestone
nectarines - chert milling balls
kiwi - fossil coral
plum - quartz
peach - sandstone
pineapple - calcite

lemon meringue pie - travertine

hamburger - quartz (jasper)
hamburger bun - quartzite
Swiss cheese - siltstone
onion slice - quartz (agate)
pickles - quartz (chert / brown) and granite (green)
olives - obsidian (aka "Apache tears")
french fries - splinters of rhyolite

steak - quartz (jasper)
peas - gastropod opercula (snail "trap doors) dyed
corn on the cob - limonite concretion
mushrooms - calcite and bentorsite balls
carrots - stalactite tips