Friday, February 5, 2010

Lovin' some gemstones ~ Valentine's day #5

Have you ever thought about bathing in gemstones? I have. I love the feel of a tumbled stone in my hands. When I was younger I often carried one in my pocket... I called it my worry stone. I loved the way my thumb perfectly fit in the groove on the side of the green and blue stone. I have no idea where that is now, but it was a favorite object. One of those that you don't forget.

This place brought up so many of those feelings for me. This is the Scratch Patch in Seattle. You walk in the door, and it is a two room shop, only about 300 sq ft in all. In both rooms there are about 2 inches of rocks all over the floor. Beautiful rocks. You can discover which rocks are what by comparing to this handy laminated chart that you can carry around the store with you. It was amazingly fun!

Logan had a really hard time with this store. It was small and a bit over crowded (I think we had 17 kids and 7 adults... in 300 square feet). So I didn't get to play near as much as I wanted to, but my older two had a BLAST.

I think we will have to go back when it is just the four of us. Aside from Logan's reaction to the over crowed conditions (over stimulation is strong in our family) I think it was my favorite field trip of 2010 so far! I think we could have spent hours there discovering our own pieces of treasure. And on top of that, it was right next to the Woodland Park Zoo... where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

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9 comments

Ricki said...

Very cool! I'm putting that on my list of places to visit next time I'm in Seattle!

Tracey said...

Oh my goodness!! What a fun place to play! I love the fact the kids can lie down, walk stocking feet and just enjoy the exploration! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful place!

Sarah said...

What a cool place! I have always collected stones like that, and my boys do too. They each have a couple pouches of them in their rock collections. You have such interesting stores up there!

Erika said...

That is so neat! I would love it if we had a place like that around here! I know what you mean about bathing in gemstones! I have this great book about which stones to lay where for certain ailments. My littlest one always says, "Ahh, all better now." So cute! Thanks for sharing with pictures. Makes me want to reach out and touch. You have a very nice homeschool group. Have a very blessed day, Val!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

I don't know when we'll ever get to Seattle again, but that place is going on my must visit list, when we do!

Sippy Cup Central said...

Wow, my girls would love that! I really enjoy your blog. I enjoy canning, but we have really thought hard about dehydrating more and using freezer and canning less. I just started my blog and would love for you to take a look.

Anna said...

What a cool place. If I ever get out to Seattle I'm going to head over there.

Katie said...

What a cool place! You are lucky to live there :)

M.E. Greene said...

I absolutely love tumbled stones, as well. I used to keep shoe boxes full of favorite rocks under my bed when I was growing up, and rocks lined my window sills. Could it be a February thing?

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