A few weeks ago, the week after Easter, we had some fantastic weather here in New Jersey with temperatures reaching the 30s C (mid 80s F).
Summertime in spring
On a whim, I took off a Friday to have a long weekend. An extra day with no work and no plan and to just go for a bit of a drive in our Miata, top down to get maximum fresh air - and fun!
Fresh air we got plenty that day - just not without a plan. Hubby needed at least a bit of a plan, a destination to not drive around in circles. So Thursday night the internet was consulted and I found us a destination for a day trip, the
Sterling Hill Mining Museum
While the museum and shop are open every day, they usually only have tours into the mine on Saturday/Sunday. However, since this was the week after Easter and spring break here in NJ they offered their tours also during the week - yay us!
The below pictures will give you an impression of the mine including the way workers got to their workplace back when it was run. Being a zinc mine as opposed to e.g. coal the interior of the mine was really pretty clean. I mean rock and water and all but no dust or such.
I condensed the many photos I took with my iPhone into a few collages. But they are pretty big so if you click on them you can scroll in zoom in a bit more.
All the old apparatuses, drills and what-not, really fascinating. And the volunteers made it an entertaining and educational walk in the dark dim light.
The highlight of the mining tour are the fluorescent minerals that can be found here. Without the black light the rocks look pretty much like ordinary stone. But when the black light is turned on these specific minerals glow in the prettiest colors in the dark. Like this
Fluorescent rainbow
It was pitchblack when I took that colorful photo and the gif underneath will show you the difference seen between 'normal' and black light.
This here was a display of an explosives set up to cut their way into the ore. And a fold in the rock.
This here was such a beautiful small lake, crystal clear with a beautiful reflection. I'm sure some of the rocks would glow very colorful under black light. But we went into an opposite tunnel before the light was switched and gave us a view of this colorful slab that was apparently used in some Hollywood film...
Once we existed the mine we were led into the adjacent museum of... so much stuff. Once again the light was switched to black and all the boring looking rock in displays behind glass began to glow beautifully. Imagine having dinner under black light with that glowing crystal ware?
I decided to limit what I am showing you today because all the minerals and fossils and machinery in the museum might be better in another post. I feel there is too much in this one already.
After that exhausting museum tour we took a short drive to a brew pub and had a nice sandwich accompanied by a locally brewed beer and sour before taking a little stroll around the village and hitting the road home again.
I think our smiles say it all - we had a wonderful day and start to the weekend!
Have a great rest of your day!
Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee
