11th Annual Autumn Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show - Day One

Today was was Day One of this year's 11th Annual Autumn Cayucos Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Show at the Cayucos Vets Hall next to the Cayucos Pier in Cayucos, CA. Last year I covered that year's installment of this show labeling Friday (the set-up day) as Day One and going from there through Day Three on Sunday. This year I elected to not cover set-up day and instead focus on the three-day cut-off low passing out of the area. By today the weather was as beautiful as it gets on the Central Coast of California any time of year. October is one of the most beautiful times of year to be in this region and following three days of unseasonably inclement weather it was nice to see the Sun again. It was that sense of feeling cooped up and wanting to get out and blow off some steam that might have contributed to today's strong show performance. The crowd showed up and they spent money in our dealers booths in a fashion that seemed to surpass last year's Saturday performance and perhaps match a typical June Cayucos show (we do one on Father's Day weekend each year as well which is always better than a given year's October show). I was busy today wearing four different hats. I am the Minister of Propaganda Publicity Chairman for this show. I am working in two different booths in this show; Dave Richter's Rocks & Relics booth and the late "Show" Steve Shear's Showcase Displays booth with the help of his widow Marybeth. Lastly, I am selling some of my remaining show inventory in my friend (and show chairman) Mike Lyon's booth. This material is left over from back in the day when I was a vendor myself. Today, as you might imagine, I was fairly preoccupied all day so I did not get the opportunity (nor found the inspiration) to take more images than the following which are shown in the order taken.

Cayucos Pier

Cayucos State Beach

The main hall at the show.

Past-president (and show chairman) Bob Hurless showed up slim and svelte. Look at him last year HERE!

Cam's Crystal Palace

A cool faux rose quartz crystal: actually a carved and polished chunk of massive rose quartz from Brazil.

Kirk Brock's Rock Solid Jade pieces from Clear Creek in nearby San Benito County.

This locality is now closed to mining and collecting due to Bureau of Land Mismanagement policy.

Ernie Porter's prize-winning piece of naturally-polished pocket vulcan jade from last weekend's Big Sur Jade Festival pocket jade throw-down.

Jade-diving legend Ernie Porter at today's show showing off the aforementioned piece of jade he found back in the day.

Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).