It just so happens that it's actually more "hope" than "diamond". Walking into the room where it is held at the museum (yes, it has its very own room, so that we can all stand around it and gaze in awe), I was expecting something about the size of a small potato. Maybe bigger. It took me a minute to find the diamond. The huge bulletproof glass case helped a bit. And there it sat, on a periodically rotating platform, in all its glory: The Glorified Rock.
It was quite beautiful, but really, why not put it in the other gem exhibits with the other pretty rocks? Probably because it would be harder to find. I had a feeling that the main reason for the big glass case was so that it wouldn't get misplaced.
As if to add insult to injury (well, no I wasn't that injured, but I have to use the cliché anyway), the security guard followed me around the room as I walked. "Yes, sir, of course I'm planning to steal the world's most valuable carbon crystal right in front of all these people." Well, if there hadn't been an inch of glass between us and it, they probably wouldn't have noticed.
It was a very pretty blue rock. But I'm glad I didn't base my trip around the hope of seeing the Hope Diamond.
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