Travel: Kauai vacation photos from September 2007

This post took a bit longer to get around to. But, at last, below are photos and travelogue of my most recent travels.

To see two YouTube videos about Kauai go here. One of the videos is mine. The other is put out by people on Kauai concerned about overdevelopment.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Arrived in Honolulu!



The last time I was in Honolulu was as a teenager many decades ago!



Sunday, September 16, 2007

My uncle took me to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial. The lines were long so we didn't make the trip to the site.



Nonetheless, reading the various interpretive displays was very moving even though the attack occurred 66 years ago. I'm sure it really impacts some of the older visitors who have memories of the actual event or knew people who were there.

Our next stop was the Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery.



There are murals that recap the Battle for the Pacific during World War II. The number of battles is unimaginable.

The visiting side of the trip came to an end and I donned my "business" hat by attending the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and participating in a poster session for the evening.

Monday, September 17, 2007

The ASBMR conference was held at the Honolulu Convention Center.



It was a good workout to make the trek between the Convention Center and the Princess Kaiulani hotel.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

One of the mornings I decided to walk on the sands of Waikiki en route to the Convention Center.



Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Figuring I don't know when I'd be back to this part of the world again, I planned for a short island hop to Kauai!



The view from the airplane window!



On the ground!



My rental car was obtained through Priceline which was somewhat below the published rates since it was "shoulder" season between the summer travelers and the late fall/early winter escapees from elsewhere's cold weather.



I stayed at the Kauai Sands which was the lowest priced hotel on Yahoo! Travel.



Beautiful beach at the Kauai Sands but a tad windy!

The Kauai Sands is next to the Coconut Marketplace shopping center.



Kauai Tourism Tip: There is pretty heavy traffic between Kapaa and Lihue during morning and late afternoon rush hour. Also, if you are on the road after sunset, be aware it is very dark as there are very few street lights on the roads between towns! I discovered this because I figured, oh, take a little drive around the island before calling it a night. The sun went down and it was dark!

I wound up driving all the way up to Hanalei but it was completely dark so I didn't get to see the beautiful views I would two days later. I ended up having dinner at Bubba's Burgers in Hanalei.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Good morning Kapaa!

I rolled out of bed to watch the sunrise over the ocean!

There were other guests at the hotel with the same idea.



For the day, I headed toward the west side of the island to get to Waimea Canyon.



Even with the late morning haze, it is still quite a view though I would imagine would have been very spectacular in the golden sunrise/sunset hours.

The windy road eventually reaches Kalalau Lookout.



What a view!



Weather changes quickly on the islands! The rain swept in yielding the gorgeous rainbow!



If you have time, be sure to check out Hanapepe. There are some neat art galleries there which I got to check out a few that were open. The Cafe in the town is a top destination that is only open limited hours and requires reservations.

I then headed off to the Spouting Horn.



For dinner, I went to Brennecke's Beach Broiler.



Did you like the view from my dining table?

I had Opah and Ono for dinner. I liked the Ono better.

To work off some calories, I walked around Poipu beach to wait for the sunset!



Friday, September 21, 2007

I had made a reservation while I was in Los Angeles for a Na Pali Coast Catamaran tour through Captain Sundown. However, they contacted me with news on Thursday that the swell conditions were too rough to sail so I had to change my plans. I booked a kayak trip for Friday with Kayak Wailua.



We paddled up to Uluwehi Falls. It was quite a workout but lots of fun!

The falls wasn't very spectacular because the amount of rainfall had been low lately.



Nonetheless, had to take a picture in the water. It is cold as the water runs down from the top of Kauai!

I showered off back at the Kauai Sands and then hit the road to the Kapaa local products fair.







I had driven up to Hanalai on my first evening and had no idea how beautiful it was!

Here is one of the lookout points on the side of the road.



As a photographer, the golden hours are right around sunrise and sunset. What a view in Hanalei bay!



Waikiki back in Honolulu is like Rodeo Drive but with lots of big hotels. It is a district that probably never sleeps. But I've never been much of a night life person and truth be told there probably isn't a lot of nightlife in Kauai. I heard there are a few bars with music and such.

However, when I can, I like to get a feel for the local flavor. I saw in the local paper that Waimea was playing Kapaa in high school football at Kapaa which is the town right next to the Kauai Sands.

I was pretty tired from the kayak tour and the drive up to Hanalai but I figured what the heck, I'll go see the football game after a hearty meal. I went the Wailua Family Restaurant which was across the street from where I had met up for the kayak tour. I'd agree with the description of this place being like a Sizzler. Fancy dining it is not. But a decent amount of food at a reasonable price is good enough for me. I had a steak and Mahi Mahi platter. But most importantly, I got information about the football game! The man behind the counter said his daughter would be one of the cheerleaders at the game. The woman at the cash register drew a simple map to the stadium.



In the white jersey's were the visiting Waimea Menehune. In the green was the home team the Kapaa Warriors!

In the first half, I was amidst some Kapaa fans. One lady with a video camera explained to me her son was one of the players and her daughter was one of the cheerleaders. She pointed out various other relatives in the stands. It truly is a family event.

In the second half, I was amidst some Waimea fans. A couple noticed I didn't seem like a local and asked me what my story was. I explained I was a mainlander on vacation after business. They seemed happy to see a tourist at the game. They pointed out various family members in the stands and told me their son was a running back on the Menehune. They explained to me that there are three high schools on the island. They also told me that the Menehune were the legendary miniature men of Hawaii.

In case you were curious: Menehune 21 Warriors 7.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

My last day on Kauai ...

One of the signature sights was Wailua Falls.



Since I had a few more hours before the flight back to Honolulu, I drove down toward the south side.

I stopped at Old Koloa Town. There are some cute little shops on the old historic street.

I had to visit beautiful Poipu beach one last time.

The sleeping Monk Seal got a lot of attention!





Flew back to Honolulu and had a get together with various relatives.



Sunday, September 23, 2007

I had a few hours before my flight back to LAX. My uncle drove me to a few more sights on Oahu.

We went to Pali Lookout ...



Went to one of the surfing spots to see if anyone was out there ...



Saw a rower ...



Had lunch at the Ala Moana Shopping Center and saw some Hulu dancing ...



Aloha!

Travel: Kauai and Oahu, September 2007

My first You Tube video!



Aloha!

Travel: Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit in San Diego

What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered by Bedouin herders and then by archaeologists between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea in Israel. Thousands of fragments were discovered and pieced together into over 900 separate documents including biblical books, hymns, prayers, and other important writings.

quote source: http://www.sdnhm.org/scrolls/history.html

How old are they?

Within a fairly short time after their discovery, historical, paleographic, and linguistic evidence, as well as carbon-14 dating, established that the scrolls and the Qumran ruin dated from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E. They were indeed ancient!

quote source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/intr.html

Who wrote them?

The word “Essene” is never distinctly mentioned in the scrolls. How, then, can we attribute either the writings or the sites of the Judaean Desert to the Essenes? The argument in favour of this ascription is supported by the tripartite division of Judaism referred to in Qumran writings (for example, in the Nahum Commentary), into Ephraim, Menasseh and Judah, corresponding to the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. As the Essenes refer to themselves in the scrolls as Judah, it is clear who they regarded themselves to be. Moreover, their religious concepts and beliefs as attested in the scrolls conform to those recorded in contemporary writings and stand in sharp contrast to those of the other known Jewish groups.

quote source: http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=44&subj_id=195&id=461&module_id=#as

However, there is disagreement in the scholarly community over the extent the Essenes were responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Although this evidence is accepted by the majority of scholars in identifying the Essenes with the Qumran settlement and the manuscripts found in the surrounding caves, some scholars remain unconvinced. Some propose that the site was a military garrison or even a winter villa. The scrolls are viewed as an eclectic collection, neither necessarily inscribed in the Dead Sea area nor sectarian in nature, perhaps even the remains of the library of the Temple in Jerusalem. Other scholars view the texts as the writings of forerunners or even followers of Jesus – Jewish Christians – who still observed Jewish law.

quote source: http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=44&subj_id=195&id=461&module_id=#as

The scholars at University of Chicago appear to be one center of thought investigating alternative views.

Their web page has several detailed articles of why they doubt the Qumran theory of authorship.

This item was their response to the exhibit of the DSS at Seattle's Pacific Science Center.

Yet in the past decade members of the reading public have become increasingly aware of a growing controversy over the nature and origin of the Scrolls. The new, opposing view, developed particularly in the wake of additional manuscript discoveries in that same Judaean Wilderness made in the 1950s and 1960s, is that the Scrolls reflect religious and social ideas of various groups within ancient Judaism, that Khirbet Qumran was not a religious site either of Essenes or others, and that the hiding of the Scrolls in the caves arose out of the need of the Jews of Jerusalem, circa 68/69 C.E., to sequester their manuscripts and other valued possessions when they became aware that the Romans intended to besiege and invade the city.

quote source: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/is/deadseascrolls.html

Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls important?

The scrolls comprise, among other things, the oldest copies of the Bible in existence. The Qumran scrolls date from approximately 250 B.C. to about 65 A.D., and at some other locations to about 135 A.D. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest existing manuscripts of parts of the Hebrew Bible came from about 800-1,000 A.D. The oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex, dates to 1008 A.D. This means that the Dead Sea Scrolls give us texts of the Bible which were copied more than 1000 years earlier than any others now in existence!

The scrolls are also important because they have enabled scholars to gather an immense amount of information about how the Bible was written and how it was transmitted from generation to generation. In many cases the scrolls show a remarkable similarity to the text of the Hebrew Bible currently in use. In some cases differences between the scrolls and the traditional Hebrew text help explain difficulties in the present Hebrew Bible, and most modern translations of the Bible (such as the NIV) incorporate some of the new information from the scrolls.

Another crucial feature of the scrolls is the picture they portray of the Judaism of Jesus’ day. The scrolls show that Judaism in that period was more diverse than was once thought, and the literary parallels between the Gospels and the literature of Qumran demonstrate several instructive points of contact between Jesus’ teaching and the Judaism of his day.

quote source: http://www.deadseascrollsfoundation.com/about_the_scrolls.htm

Personal reflections

I do hope someday to visit Israel and the various places in the Middle East described in the Scriptures of the monotheistic religions. Until then, I have to be content with a pilgrimage to an exhibit like this.

My feelings about this exhibit grows from the fact that there is so much interest in them. The items themselves vary in their beauty. Some are in pretty decent shape and you can read the lovely script work of the scribe who wrote them. Others are quite hard to read as the wear and tear on the scrolls have made the lettering difficult to see. Some items are fairly intact while others are fragmentary. People are fascinated by them partly for what they are but mostly for what they represent.

No matter which theory of authorship you subscribe to, somebody 2000 years ago decided these things were worth making copies of and since their discovery in 1947, many scholars have painstakingly preserved them and studied them. The ideas embedded in the Hebrew Bible have stood the test of time such that today, I can sit and read an English translation of the text that is essentially the same as what the scribe worked on 2000 or so years ago!

At a personal level, I think the mystery of this connection through continuity hit home to me as I saw 11Q10 (the fifth scroll in the exhibit) which is an Aramaic translation of the Book of Job. The item is six small fragments that to be honest look like small pieces of burnt toast! But I thought about what it once was like... a whole scroll ... the delicate labor of love of a scribe. What must have been on his mind as his pen scratched those letters onto the parchment? I have been writing about Job in my "devotional thoughts" feature in this blog. I wrestle with the ideas in the book and its relationship to my life of faith. 2000 years ago, a scribe was at a table writing and probably thinking the same things.

Travel: Can you guess where I am?

Recently took a road trip!

Can you guess where I am?



Lots of beautiful flowers there.



Its an old place. In fact, founded in 1776.



When I saw these flowers there, I had to say, "Morning glory, evening grace, Hugh Hewitt!"

My journey continued and I stopped at the pier shown below.



Check out this more colorful picture. And check out this more striking picture!



I had lunch here at a restaurant reported to be a favorite of President Richard Nixon. Upon more web surfing, I am questioning the accuracy of the report as this restaurant makes the same claim on its web page.

I parked my car here to catch this below.



After a forty-five minute ride, I went to buy tickets!









All of the above was the journey which I enjoyed to get to my destination!



What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered by Bedouin herders and then by archaeologists between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea in Israel. Thousands of fragments were discovered and pieced together into over 900 separate documents including biblical books, hymns, prayers, and other important writings.

quote source: http://www.sdnhm.org/scrolls/history.html

How old are they?

Within a fairly short time after their discovery, historical, paleographic, and linguistic evidence, as well as carbon-14 dating, established that the scrolls and the Qumran ruin dated from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E. They were indeed ancient!

quote source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/intr.html

Who wrote them?

The word “Essene” is never distinctly mentioned in the scrolls. How, then, can we attribute either the writings or the sites of the Judaean Desert to the Essenes? The argument in favour of this ascription is supported by the tripartite division of Judaism referred to in Qumran writings (for example, in the Nahum Commentary), into Ephraim, Menasseh and Judah, corresponding to the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. As the Essenes refer to themselves in the scrolls as Judah, it is clear who they regarded themselves to be. Moreover, their religious concepts and beliefs as attested in the scrolls conform to those recorded in contemporary writings and stand in sharp contrast to those of the other known Jewish groups.

quote source: http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=44&subj_id=195&id=461&module_id=#as

However, there is disagreement in the scholarly community over the extent the Essenes were responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Although this evidence is accepted by the majority of scholars in identifying the Essenes with the Qumran settlement and the manuscripts found in the surrounding caves, some scholars remain unconvinced. Some propose that the site was a military garrison or even a winter villa. The scrolls are viewed as an eclectic collection, neither necessarily inscribed in the Dead Sea area nor sectarian in nature, perhaps even the remains of the library of the Temple in Jerusalem. Other scholars view the texts as the writings of forerunners or even followers of Jesus – Jewish Christians – who still observed Jewish law.

quote source: http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=44&subj_id=195&id=461&module_id=#as

The scholars at University of Chicago appear to be one center of thought investigating alternative views.

Their web page has several detailed articles of why they doubt the Qumran theory of authorship.

This item was their response to the exhibit of the DSS at Seattle's Pacific Science Center.

Yet in the past decade members of the reading public have become increasingly aware of a growing controversy over the nature and origin of the Scrolls. The new, opposing view, developed particularly in the wake of additional manuscript discoveries in that same Judaean Wilderness made in the 1950s and 1960s, is that the Scrolls reflect religious and social ideas of various groups within ancient Judaism, that Khirbet Qumran was not a religious site either of Essenes or others, and that the hiding of the Scrolls in the caves arose out of the need of the Jews of Jerusalem, circa 68/69 C.E., to sequester their manuscripts and other valued possessions when they became aware that the Romans intended to besiege and invade the city.

quote source: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/is/deadseascrolls.html

Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls important?

The scrolls comprise, among other things, the oldest copies of the Bible in existence. The Qumran scrolls date from approximately 250 B.C. to about 65 A.D., and at some other locations to about 135 A.D. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest existing manuscripts of parts of the Hebrew Bible came from about 800-1,000 A.D. The oldest complete copy of the Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex, dates to 1008 A.D. This means that the Dead Sea Scrolls give us texts of the Bible which were copied more than 1000 years earlier than any others now in existence!

The scrolls are also important because they have enabled scholars to gather an immense amount of information about how the Bible was written and how it was transmitted from generation to generation. In many cases the scrolls show a remarkable similarity to the text of the Hebrew Bible currently in use. In some cases differences between the scrolls and the traditional Hebrew text help explain difficulties in the present Hebrew Bible, and most modern translations of the Bible (such as the NIV) incorporate some of the new information from the scrolls.

Another crucial feature of the scrolls is the picture they portray of the Judaism of Jesus’ day. The scrolls show that Judaism in that period was more diverse than was once thought, and the literary parallels between the Gospels and the literature of Qumran demonstrate several instructive points of contact between Jesus’ teaching and the Judaism of his day.

quote source: http://www.deadseascrollsfoundation.com/about_the_scrolls.htm

Personal reflections

I do hope someday to visit Israel and the various places in the Middle East described in the Scriptures of the monotheistic religions. Until then, I have to be content with a pilgrimage to an exhibit like this.

My feelings about this exhibit grows from the fact that there is so much interest in them. The items themselves vary in their beauty. Some are in pretty decent shape and you can read the lovely script work of the scribe who wrote them. Others are quite hard to read as the wear and tear on the scrolls have made the lettering difficult to see. Some items are fairly intact while others are fragmentary. People are fascinated by them partly for what they are but mostly for what they represent.

No matter which theory of authorship you subscribe to, somebody 2000 years ago decided these things were worth making copies of and since their discovery in 1947, many scholars have painstakingly preserved them and studied them. The ideas embedded in the Hebrew Bible have stood the test of time such that today, I can sit and read an English translation of the text that is essentially the same as what the scribe worked on 2000 or so years ago!

At a personal level, I think the mystery of this connection through continuity hit home to me as I saw 11Q10 (the fifth scroll in the exhibit) which is an Aramaic translation of the Book of Job. The item is six small fragments that to be honest look like small pieces of burnt toast! But I thought about what it once was like... a whole scroll ... the delicate labor of love of a scribe. What must have been on his mind as his pen scratched those letters onto the parchment? I have been writing about Job in my "devotional thoughts" feature in this blog. I wrestle with the ideas in the book and its relationship to my life of faith. 2000 years ago, a scribe was at a table writing and probably thinking the same things.

Travel: Where am I?

If the flowers don't give it away certainly the photos below will give it away as does this song.



Click for a larger image.

Added another ballpark to my list of visited ball parks!



What do you think these people are doing? 8-)



If you know this town, you will know where this is!?



This one should be easy to identify!



Click for a larger image.

The bridge is familiar! But where did I take the photo from?



The flower shots were taken at the same location. Do you know where it is?

To see the answers, go here.