Have any of you ever heard about the Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals?

I had no idea it existed before yesterday when I went there with my geology class.  I looked it up before we went and I saw that it was in a house and in Forest Grove and assumed it was going to be a total crap sandwhich but i was pleasantly surprised.  

I learned when I got there that it has the world's preeminent collection of petrified wood, which was more impressive than it sounds, they have a room full of flourescent rocks, a big collection of gold, peices of mars and the moon, a 3,000 pound thunderegg, a ton of metorites and a $500,000 huge diversified crystal that the museum founders outbid the Smithsonian for.  In fact, I guess there collection of rocks and minerals is handily more reveered than the Smithsonians. Not what you'd expect from an old couples fancy house out in Forest Grove.

A picture of the spendy crystal

The coolest thing was the fossil collection.  They had a whole bunch of dinosaur eggs, one of which still has an embryo inside, and entire preserved baby dinosuar, and even some dino poop!

It was well worth the trip out there and it was easy enough to find. It's not going to toally knock your socks off (well the crystal and dino peices might) but still, it's a cool little place to visit that i never knew existed.  Certainly worth a trip on one of those days when you just feel like you're out of things to do.

Check it out if you're so inclined.

Oh and it's only 5 bucks and they have a nifty gift shop full of rock stuff too.