Ready for a journey? sit back and enjoy!

Good morning! i hope this day finds you well!!
Due to rain, we didn't get to the swapmeet on Saturday but worry not, for i have LOADS of past bargains to share still but first i wish to share a special event that i wanted to do for as long as i knew about it!
On Sunday DH & i had reservations to go to Oceanview Mines to go through the 'tailings' from when they blast the mine. it was fun but backbreaking work if you tried to screen the whole time allowed. but before i get ahead of myself, i want to share the whole journey. hehe
We expected to be driving for three hours but it really was only a little more than two. Beautiful scenery, especially when the clouds were playing close to the ground.


this town was only about 1400 feet elevation but surely felt alot higher when the clouds came in and met the ground!!!

and it really was ONLY that city/town, as soon as we drove through, the clouds were lifting again! lol

but they did stay close to the mountains the whole way there!



well since we got there about an hour early, we decided to hit the
Pala Casino to hit the restroom and kill some time. this is the only picture i took while there.

Little did we know that it would be so much fun as we started with only playing a dollar or two on the slots. it was really fun since they had penny and nickel slots as well as the more costly ones. And after we played a couple of dollars, i hit and won five!! Then DH played (still having time to kill) and i said about playing this one machine and when he did, he only played one and hit the most the machine paid out for the amount he bet.... over $32.00!! WOOHOO! time to quit and hit the mine!!
As we enter the grounds for the mine site, we were asked not to pick the oranges since it was on the grounds but not owned by the mine people. it was tough driving right past them all, they were soooooooooo tempting and BEAUTIFUL!!

here are just a few of the quartz specimens, they get from their mine!


this one i had to touch just to show the scale and size of these!! hehe

this is a sample of their Smoky quartz! just AWESOME!

a couple more BIGGER specimens of quartz crystals!


As you can see in these next few shots, it was a LOVELY area!



But the clouds took a while before they burned away.

After arriving on time, we were shown our 'stations' and gathered for a demonstration on how to 'screen' for gemstones!
Here DH is at our station and checking out a stone.

this is the pile of 'tailings' that they blasted from the mine, that we are anxious to go through!! hehe

So we start shoveling from the pile, and carry our bucketfuls to our station to screen and after about a half hour or so, they came around and asked who wanted to have the actual mine tour. DH went while i remained screening the tailings! i am a bit clostraphobic and gave DH the camera. He took a few pictures of inside the mine!!

They paint one color for where they want them to come in and blast and another color for ventilation blasting, which i would have never known.

Here you can see how the Black tourmaline is found.

Here you can see the HUGE quartz crystals!!

Then before DH gave me the camera back, he took a couple of me, WORKING the tailings!
HA!

And dumping the stones from the screen.

The tailings pile is getting smaller!!

it was really quite fun but honestly a bit of work but we did find some goodies!
like these smoky quartz crystals. (according to their prices, that big one would go for about $20.-$25.00)

Some pink tourmalines and aquamarines.

some watermelon tourmaline, too!

and only about a ton of black tourmaline rods & pieces!!

cool, huh? it was a full day for sure!!
i do have better photos to share but have to stop blogging so DH can upload them to the computer! hehe
i hope you enjoyed your day trip with me, as i surely enjoyed sharing with you! big HUGS!! Have a WONDERFUL day!! you know i will be back soon!! :)