President's Vacation

So President Obama flew in last night and is here for about 10 days. Thankfully this is about the same time frame in which I am going to be in Colorado. I say this because since he is the President, lots of security detail follows him around and therefore make is more difficult for people to get around. By being off in Colorado, I get the chance to miss all the headache of being delayed, or detoured because of the President traveling. I also went to find Air Force One on the island. It wasn't that hard and was actually relatively easy compared to what I thought it would be. Since the news covered where he landed, it was only a matter of driving around Joint Base Pearl Hickam to find the famous plane. I only found one of the planes though (its twin should have been somewhere on the island or nearby, but I didn't go looking for it). For those that live in a closet, below is a picture of Air Force One (from a public website of course).

http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2009/03/06/welcome-aboard-air-force-one/

Surprise on the North Shore

So I went up to the North Shore today hoping to catch some of the Billabong Pipe Master surf competition, the third of three in the Triple Crown Series. Unfortunately, it was canceled the day I went because the surf was not "big" enough for the competition. I still saw some pretty good local surfers practicing and probably some pros as well, but I'm not versed in the surfing world to know who is who yet. Give me some time and I might get better at it. Anyways, the surprise was a guy that was dressed up as Santa Claus. I guess Hawaii got an early visit from Santa. It's also interesting to note, in the surfing world, Hawaii is considered its own country. Then again Hawaii seems to be the neglected state in the Union (along with Alaska). Another side note, shipping costs more here in Hawaii and also to Alaska, for some reason it isn't really fair if you think about it.

Town Beach

The above beach is one of my favorite places to visit when I am in the Waikiki/Town area of the island. Ala Moana beach is from what I have heard the "locals" beach to hang out at instead of the "visitor" beach of Waikiki. Anyways, the beaches in general on Saturdays are crowed with families doing barbecues or parties or combinations of both. It is not uncommon to find a bouncy castle in the park or more than one in the park. Therefore, I try to stay away from most of the "family/tourist" beaches on Saturday. I normally go during the week or on Sunday. Both of these times do not see the crowded level that is seen on Saturday.

This beach also sees a lot of stand up paddle boarding (SUP) and people swimming laps along the length of the beach. There aren't that many waves that are seen at this beach which is also pretty nice. It's a nice relaxing place to come to. There is also a park that is right next to the beach where people play volleyball, have parties, play tennis, basketball, Ultimate Frisbee (which I have yet to see, I have just heard rumors), and lot of people biking and running. It is a good park to go running in since there are some nice trails, and not a lot of vehicle traffic.

Now you might ask what SUP is. I will refer you to this site that gives a short introduction/history of it (click here). At Ala Moana, you don't normally see people surfing of these boards, since there is not many waves. You normally see people just paddling parallel to the beach (seen below). I have not learned how to do this. It is on my list of things to learn.

http://everpaddle.com/gallery.html

Tour of Laie Temple

If you ever get a chance to go inside a Mormon Temple I highly suggest it. Even though if are not Mormon or not even religious by any standards, it is still an interesting and informative opportunity that you should take advantage of. A bit of a background, one can only go into a temple normally if you are Mormon and have been baptized and officially part of the church. The temple is one of the most important places for a Mormon to come and visit. A visitor or non Mormon can only see a temple when it is open to the public. These times normally follow just being built or a large renovation and construction. From the time that they finish the temple, they open it up to the public before they rededicate. Once it is rededicated, you cannot go into the temple.

Now the tour itself is very structure, they greeted you with smiles and hand shakes and stage you in groups.  At the Laie Temple, we watched about a 12 min film about the history of the "Mormon Temple" and then specifically the Laie Temple itself. Granted it was interesting to know that the Laie Temple was the first Temple in the Pacific (and I believe outside of the Mainland US). This was the second renovation of this temple. After the informational video, we walked up to the entrance of the temple. Now the temple itself is pretty beautiful. Lots of money seems to go into these temples and lots of artwork. Many of the artwork comes from the locals in the area as much as possible. The entrance might also be tailored to the location and the culture that the temple is in. (This is speculation since this is the first temple that I have been in.)

The temple has changing rooms for both the Men and Women to change out of their "worldly" clothes and change into white garments. This is so that everyone is on an even plane and can forget the world behind while they are in the temple. This temple had some renovation to include a Bridal room so that they could get prepared and reflect before they are sealed in the sealing room (married). This temple also has different rooms in which they receive preaching from elders or brothers and sisters. There are I believe 4 sealing rooms in this temple which is where they get married. The highlight of the temple is the Celestial room which is at the "top" of the temple. On the way there, there is a huge water basin that is used for baptisms I believe for both living and then on behalf of the dead. This basin is in model of the basins described adorning the Solomon Temple. Back to the Celestial room, this room is the most important, for the reason that they "feel" closest to God and have ascended from the world for a time. Ascended in the manner of that the elevation is constantly being raised (going up stairs) as you make your way closer to the Celestial room. This room is very bright. White paint, with gold inlay (or gold paint) on the walls, with a huge crystal chandelier. Anyways after the time in the Celestial room, they have to come back down and enter the "world" again. The tour ended with cookies and a comment card area. I put in my information and surprised that no one has contacted me yet. I was expecting to receive a Mormon Bible as well, but didn't.

Now I had two questions that I decided not to ask while I was there. I decided not to ask them since it wasn't time to get into a theological debate. It was pretty difficult to go through the tour with more of an objective look rather than trying to challenge everything they said. Anyways the two questions I have are (1) for the reason why they started building temples: it comes from the fact that in the Old Testament, there was the traveling temple tent in the time of Moses up to the time Solomon built the first temple. There was also the second temple, known as the Herodian temple. Ever since the destruction of that temple by Titus in 70AD there hasn't been a temple until the time when the Mormons were "given a vision" to build a temple. So the question is, if you are going off of the basis of God telling the Israelites to build a temple in order to commune with God, why isn't there just one Mormon Temple in which Mormons have to take a journey (or jihad) like most Muslims to visit the "holy temple". Rather they have over 100 such temples. It didn't make sense to me. The second (2) question was, if the Celestial room is so important and that is where you go to feel "close to God" and to be "more like Him", why are their stair leading back down to the "world" and why would you ever leave?

Time before starting

I had the opportunity to go to the MCAS Kaneohe Bay air show featuring the Blue Angels before I started work. This was actually pretty fun, in the fact that I went with my Uncle and Aunt out here and we got to on the day before it was opened to the public. We got to the day it was open for military and civilians. It was basically their "practice" day, but it was still pretty fun since it was not very crowded, and I got to walk around without fighting tons of people, and the best part, I could watch the air show from the VIP seats without getting yelled at. So since this is a back dating of a post to reflect when it was, I can't really remember much of what I saw or the experiences.

I do have to say is that when President Obama comes and visits, he comes to the Marine base to work out (where the air show is). 

Anyways, the Blue Angels are the Navy planes that go around and perform at around the country to show the capabilities of the Navy planes and the flying skills of the Navy pilots. Now, don't ever confuse the Air Force planes with the Navy planes. Navy and Air Force get really angry when you confuse them or lump them together. Very contentious matter because each branch think they are better than the other. But since the Blue Angles are Navy planes, the air show was at the Marine base instead of the Air Force base. Now you ask why at the Marine base, first of the Navy installations on the island don't have a runway, and second Navy and Marines are like one and the same (but not really). The Blue Angels were the last act of course of the air show, but they left the planes out on the tarmac for most of the time to "show" them off. 

The part in my opinion was the demonstration of the F-22. This plance is pretty much the top of the line plane with technology that is really impressive. This was the closest I could get to the F-22, there were two on the tarmac, but only one was used in the demonstration.