Almost a month ago Adam and I flew down to Tucson for our first trip to the Gem Show. It was an overwhelming experience mixed with fun. At this moment there is about two feet of snow on the ground and I’m stuck at home watching it out my window. So I figure this is a great moment to tell you about it.

Adam and I are your typical introverts. We knew going into this experience, we would need to have plenty of down time mixed in. Luckily we gave ourselves a week to get it done, which for the first time at the Gem Show felt perfect.

Once we were there it was a crazy blizzard of buyers and gems. We rushed through quickly because most of the items we saw were beads. Every table was covered with beads of all sizes and colors. Rubies, sapphires, pearls, aquamarines, amethysts, and on and on.

Eventually we found the gems we were looking for. It was exciting to search through the trays of stones and pick out exactly what stones we wanted and spoke to us. Pictures don’t always do the stones justice when purchasing online, or its the other way around.

We made face to face connections with the stone cutters, and got to hear their stories. It’s the level of working with people I like to be at. Meeting the people behind the work is always a bonus in my opinion.

Some of my favorite finds were matched pair Owyhee Jasper from Eastern Oregon, beautiful druzies in pink and blue, gorgeous biwa style pearls, and turquoise with metalic looking inclusions in teal, green and soft blue.

I found Tucson to be a strange and wonderful place. The desert plant life is so different from the high desert plants I’m used to. I almost couldn’t wrap my head around it.

By far our favorites were the saguaro cacti. They were giants among the landscape. Looking at them to me was like when I was in Florence looking at David and thinking to myself, “I have seen this in my history books and photos of Italy and Michelangelo’s work, and I still can’t believe I am standing here in person seeing him.” I just had to stand and stare at the Saguaro and just take it in. They are so iconic to the desert.

I’m really looking forward to returning to the show again and making it an annual trip. To shop for amazing stones and stare at the saguaros.