Saturday, December 08, 2007

Dead Sea Scrolls - San Diego, CA

Let me start by sending out a warning - this is going to be long... I do not care to read really long post, but sometimes it happens. I am warning those that feel the same way.

Last weekend we took a trip to San Diego's National Museum of History to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are currently 15 on display at the museum. We walked through a corridor of art of the middle east before going into the rooms with the scrolls. We then saw artifacts from Qumran, the place where the scrolls were found. Ink wells that the scribes used were on display. No more than two have ever been found in one place and there were two found in Qumran. Some of my favorite scrolls were of the Ten Commandment, parts of Psalms, parts of Isaiah, and one that was never added to the Bible today, Enoch.

The rooms were dark and lit with small lights to preserve the scrolls. Standing among throngs of people, you could hear the hush. People were packed in, yet there was barely a whisper heard. There's something reverent about being in the same room as the scrolls. Biblical history that is more important than any other artifacts found, or so they are to me. Scrolls that were around before Jesus came to this earth. Before salvation. Now that is something were seeing!

It was a once in a lifetime experience. Sadly, one that I could not record with pictures.

After we left the museum we went to Old Town San Diego. Great Mexican food, shopping, old town charm. On our way there, we went on the bridge that connects Coronado Island to the main land. A huge double rainbow was across the bridge.

We ate at a restaurant called the Cosmopolitan. It does not look anything like it sounds. The restaurant used to be an old hotel. We did some Christmas Shopping in the main square before we begin to freeze.

On our way home everyone decided we needed some more old town charm. We stopped at the Orange Circle, it literally is a circle with a courtyard in the middle. Movies are filmed here all the time, one being That Thing You Do with Tom Hanks. We stopped at this eatery called Luccia. They served the best Panini's and Gelato. If you've never had Gelato, you need to find you a place that makes it fresh. My absolute favorite is Pistachio. We had some Gelato and then walked around in the freezing cold. I was miserable in my flip flops and light jacket. You may think I am insane wearing flip flips this time of year, but in the OC it does not get very cold. If it's down to 58, then it's really cold. I feel like I am starting to ramble so I will wrap this up.

Below are some pictures of our deadseascrolloldtownsandigeoorangecircle adventure.

7 comments:

Becky said...

Woo hoo! I finally got the comments page to load. I think because all the music and stuff has to load up, my dial-up connection times out or something. Anyway, I'm not ignoring your blog or anything...it's just my archaic mode of communication.

We're going to be taking a trip to Sandy Eggo (as my older son called it when he was little, though we're not certain why) over Christmas Break to see, guess what...the DEAD SEA SCROLLS! We've heard it's very interesting.

We also love Old Town, and we love a couple of the yummy Mexican restaurants there (though our favorite closed, or so we've heard). But I've never heard of Orange Circle before. Where is it exactly? Near any major landmarks, for instance? Sea World? Coronado Island? It sounds intriguing, and just the sort of thing we'd enjoy doing on our vacation. I LOVE gelato.

Jenster said...

I have a friend (April at For His Glory and My Good) who saw the Dead Sea Scrolls when they first came to Southern California. I am JEALOUS!

I love Old Town and Coronado Island. Sounds and looks like you had a great time.

Katybug said...

Great pics! I can't wait to show the rainbow pictures to my Little Bit...she will love them!!! Your warning cracks me up. I always hesitate to read a really long blog post, which is quite hypocritical of me. The majority of my posts are pretty long! I need to be more concise. :-/

The Daily Bee said...

Becky - lol, I remember the dialing up days, it can be a pain. =)

You will ove the Dead Sea Scrolls! It was incredible. The orange circle is in Orange County, Off the 55 fwy. This should be between you and San Deigo, you should stop in. If you love cheese, there is a place called Frog's Breath that does cheese tasting. They serve it with fresh hot baguettes, yum!

Jenster - There are endless things to do in San Diego, love Coronado!

Katybug - lol, what's so funny is that Jenster writes pretty long post, but I can read it without thinking about it because she is such a good writer. In my case, I like to do sections. I don't think your post are very long... or I haven't noticed. lol =)

Shauna said...

Coronado? Isn't there some type of military base there? Like SEALS or something? Have I said how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a good military romance story??

Deb, if I visit will you take me to Coronado? I promise not to gawk. I am, after all, very happily married. But I may do some much needed research for a future military story I may, some day in the future, write. ;-)

Pretty please.....

The Daily Bee said...

Shauna - There is a Navy base at Coronado. It is a special warfare units, one of two in the US. There's nothing like a good military romance, like True Devotion.

Of course I will take you "sight seeing", lol.

Jenster said...

Deb - You're so sweet!! And you're cracking me up because I just wrote what has to be the MOST boring post EVER!

Shauna - You naughty, naughty girl!