San Diego and the SBL: Adventures in Perfectville Part One

Whatever else you say about San Diego, it must be rather boring to be a weather man there—- ‘Yes it will be sunny and 70 degrees yet again today, with a slight breeze. The forecast is the same from now until Jesus comes back or the San Andreas fault goes off— whichever comes first.’

Yes the weather is monotonously perfect. Not surprisingly, one of the flowers you see a lot of there is the bird of paradise flower—–

And in case you needed to be convinced about the perfect Carolina blue skies of San Diego (this is so not L.A.), take a gander at the following—-

I’m thinking Saint Diego must be the patron saint of good weather! But of course we were not in San Diego for the weather, but for the Society of Biblical Literature extravaganza annual meeting, complete with book sales that makes any bibliophile drool. Here are two of mine that were being touted this time……

The SBL meeting is held in this case at the Convention Center and with some meetings in surrounding hotels. Here’s the interesting structure within the convention center….. talk about tunnel vision!

In addition to many books, there are also tour companies offering their possible tours of the lands of the Bible, and here is my favorite one— Tutku Tours, and my favorite Turks, Levent Oral the owner of the company and Meltem Chiftchi, my favorite guide. . Of course I was there to give a lecture for the Biblical Archaeology Society, and to participate in a panel discussion of the Pauline movie, a Polite Bribe, both of which went well. More in the next few posts.