Casa Grande!

On returning to Phoenix, we made a detour to Coolidge, Arizona, home of the Casa Grande Ruins!  I told anyone who asked that I was exposing Hye-Sung to interesting cultural sights.  The truth is that I really wanted to see the ruins, and since I was driving, we saw the ruins.

This Protective Pagoda of the Future was built in the 1930s.  Sometimes I like how stuff from the 1930s looks so retro-y futuristic, like this.  Other times I just hate it for the same reason.  I like this because the Pagoda looks so out of place.  I mean, really, People of the 1930s.  Come on.

Hye-Sung.

In case you're wondering, I'm wearing my sunglasses over my regular glasses.

This has apparently not eroded since the Pagoda was installed.  I find that difficult to believe.

Casa Grande is a three-story building constructed not out of bricks, but of two-foot-thick layers of mud just slapped down on top of each other.  Considering this building method, it is rather amazing that is has lasted as long as it has.  It was named Casa Grande by a Spanish  missionary in the 1600s, and at this time it had already been abandoned for centuries.