Rocks for Dinner: Casa Grande!

My first week in Arizona was pretty awful. I arrived in Arizona excited and pumped up to start my student teaching but I wasn't allowed in the schools because I hadn't received my fingerprint clearance card! There was nothing I could do but wait and wait ... and wait until I got that card in the mail! It was like I had hit a brick wall. I was devastated. Not only had my dad had just left, the family I was living with (who I had just met) was back into their school schedule, and those were the only people I knew in Arizona. So after sitting around for a week feeling sorry for myself and regretting that I choose Arizona for my student teaching, a friend mentioned to me that on Martin Luther King Day the National Park Service was going to have free admission. I started looking up National Parks around my area and I found Casa Grande National Monument! I got really excited to go and finally do something! The day after visiting Casa Grande I got to start my student teaching! :)

Casa Grande National Monument is a really cool place to go! The ruin is about 900 years old and it is a large structure about the size of a two story house! Casa Grande is the name given to the structure by Spanish explorers. Casa Grande means Grand House. The material the structure is made of a clay/dirt mixture that is similar to cement. The material is actually just the sediment that is in the immediate area. You can read more at http://home.nps.gov/cagr/index.htm.