Mama Gone Green is a blog dedicated to raising happy children and reducing our impact on the Earth. My name is Taryn and I am the mother of 2 young kids and an environmental studies instructor at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Please join me as I journey through life as a mama, teacher, knitter, photographer, gardener, and environmentalist!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Rocks!


Last week, I took the kids to the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro, about a 30 minute drive from Portland. The museum is located on a frontage road, in a 60's style ranch home. When we were driving up the driveway (literally) I was second guessing myself about our adventure, thinking that it wasn't going to be worthwhile.
Boy, was I wrong. First impressions certainly can be deceiving. This ranch style "home" (with the gift shop in the garage!) houses an amazing collection of rocks, crystal and petrified wood, including a large collection local to the Pacific Northwest. Finn was amazed, and kept exclaiming in excitement, especially when we got to the room of glow in the dark rocks... awesome! I think if I was sans-kids, I would have wandered more and stared longer, but Finn happily explored alongside me and said that he couldn't wait to go back.
The garage gift shop held many treasures.... a few rocks as souvenirs for Finn and an Oregon coast agate guide for mom. I have always collected and admired rocks, but for all of my rock-love, I am able to identify only a few types of rocks, and don't know nearly as much about their formation as I would like. When Finn started to ask me questions about how rocks glowed in the dark, or how a petrified pine cone is formed, I knew that I needed to brush up on my geology... and quick! I am already being outsmarted by a 4 year old!






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3 comments:

  1. you know we went to something similar in western PA. It looked like someone's house but inside they had an incredible amount of rocks and gems mostly for sale. The kids loved it. I enjoyed watching them to see what they would buy. Isn't it nice to stumble upon hidden treasures?

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  2. so cool- we're a rock loving family too!

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