"pretty" ones and a bag of small polished ones for me to drop in geocaches. I've found several petrified wood pits over the years while out geocaching in the hills, so have picked up a few nice chunks.

There are a lot of rounded basalt stream rocks near where we live. HCBW can't resist picking up a bunch of them whenever we find a stream bed or some place where there are a lot of them. She likes to do artwork on them.

We were up near Leavenworth and there was a country store there. We went in and bought some stuff and they had a bunch of rocks outside lined up around there sign. There was one in particular that I seriously considered just throwing in the back of the car. But my conscience wouldn't let me do it. So we drove away and I couldn't quit thinking about what a cool rock that was. I knew that at some point in the next couple of years we would drive by there again.

So last fall we drove by again and the rock was still there. I went inside and asked the store operator if they would sell me that rock outside. It was about as big as a basketball. I would have paid them up to $20 for it. The guy said - which one is it? I pointed it out and he said - "take it, you can have it!" I could barely pick it up myself so he even came out and helped me get into the car. I put it outside by our driveway but it's such a cool rock I hate to leave it out there where it can become more weathered. Anyway - another one of my favs.