"expect the unexpected"
On our recent trip to Iowa, we made a day trip out to see the "Grotto of the Redemption", an hour or so north of Des Moines. The Grotto was built mostly by one man, a priest who was thankful for his recovery from a bout with pneumonia. He spent ten years gathering materials before starting his Grotto, which is made (or covered?) entirely with semi-precious minerals, corals, agate, malachite, and quartz crystals.
In the beginning he got most of his rocks from local farmers, which, considering what most of Iowa looks like, is remarkable. Very little of what I've seen of Iowa is rocky, so to find rose quartz, crystals, and the like seems unlikely.
Anyway, it was cold. Really cold. And not just because we're from Texas, and not used to it being cold.. It was 17 degrees, with a steady wind out of the north at 20 - 25 miles an hour. Unfortunately, the way the Grotto is designed, with many narrow walkways between the individual grottos, it acted like a wind tunnel, and accentuated the cold, making it nearly impossible to linger and enjoy the amazing minerals and work that went into creating it that day.
It's like a gigantic 3D mosaic made of nothing but pretty stones and crystals, to say nothing of the statues and scenes depicting the "Stations" of Christ's life. It really deserved to be appreciated more than we were able to that day, but it was so cold that Adam, our intrepid host saved our asses by going and moving the car close to where we were budding among the grottos, saving us the long walk back to the car.
"expect the unexpected"
On our recent trip to Iowa, we made a day trip out to see the "Grotto of the Redemption", an hour or so north of Des Moines. The Grotto was built mostly by one man, a priest who was thankful for his recovery from a bout with pneumonia. He spent ten years gathering materials before starting his Grotto, which is made (or covered?) entirely with semi-precious minerals, corals, agate, malachite, and quartz crystals.
In the beginning he got most of his rocks from local farmers, which, considering what most of Iowa looks like, is remarkable. Very little of what I've seen of Iowa is rocky, so to find rose quartz, crystals, and the like seems unlikely.
Anyway, it was cold. Really cold. And not just because we're from Texas, and not used to it being cold.. It was 17 degrees, with a steady wind out of the north at 20 - 25 miles an hour. Unfortunately, the way the Grotto is designed, with many narrow walkways between the individual grottos, it acted like a wind tunnel, and accentuated the cold, making it nearly impossible to linger and enjoy the amazing minerals and work that went into creating it that day.
It's like a gigantic 3D mosaic made of nothing but pretty stones and crystals, to say nothing of the statues and scenes depicting the "Stations" of Christ's life. It really deserved to be appreciated more than we were able to that day, but it was so cold that Adam, our intrepid host saved our asses by going and moving the car close to where we were budding among the grottos, saving us the long walk back to the car.