North Carolina, "The Old North State"

North Carolina Fun Facts:

(as stated on the backside of the postcard)

State Capital  -- Raleigh

State Tree     -- Long Leaf Pine

State Flower  -- Dogwood

State Bird      -- Cardinal

Highest Point  -- Mount Mitchell @ 6,684 ft

Largest City   -- Charlotte

Area               -- 48,843 sq. miles

Statehood      -- November 21, 1789 (12th state admitted)

State Motto   -- Esse quam videri (To be rather than to seem)

State Song     -- "The Old North State"

received on May 19, 2011

"Down East"

Very interesting! Here's the text of the postcard in case it is hard to read:

"One of the most asked questions of the Maine tourist has to do with the term "Down East." It would seem that inasmuch as Maine is north of the rest of the country, "down" is a contradiction of terms. In early times, it turns out, the state was generally reached from Boston and other points by sailing vessel. Since the prevailing wind is westerly, travelers sailed down wind to Maine, creating the local term, "going down to Maine" or "down east". 

www.visitmaine.com

Received May 16, 2011.

Iowa...where you can hear the corn grow!

www.iowacorn.org

www.iowa.gov

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa

Nice stamps!

A Louisiana Plantation Home

Historic Houmas House

River Road, Burnside, Louisiana

"The magnificent Greek revival plantation was built by Colonel John Smith Preston on land originally inhabited by the Houmas Indians. Mrs. Preston was the daughter of General White Hampton. Dr. and Mrs. Crozat acquired the property in 1940, and have restored it to its original splendor."

Stamp and postmark.

Dairy cows in Vermont

Holstein cows and Queen Anne's Lace in a "typical" summer Vermont setting. These cows look pretty content!

"The Swamp" at the University of Florida

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, home of the Fightin' Gators.  This stadium is also known as the "The Swamp" and is "widely recognized as one of the toughest environments for a visiting team in all of college football", and apparently "only Gators get out alive".*

My sender will be a junior at the UF this fall.

*gatorzone.com/facilities/?venue=swamp&sport=footb
ufl.edu/?60

Greensburg, PA

This card depicts a mural painted by a local artist in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

From the back of the card:  "Originally a railroad stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad, Greensburg quickly became the center of the coal mining industry in the region by the late 1800's when large areas of soft coal were discovered nearby."   

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensburg,_Pennsylvania

Virginia Wildlife

I got this card on July 19.  The sender saw that I like animals, so he sent me a card with wildlife found in Virginia ~

We have all of these animals in Colorado, and I've seen all of them in the wild.   It is always nice to get some in the mail, though!  

Here's an historical American farm in action:

This is the Oliver H. Kelley Farm in Elk River, Minnesota.  It is a living history museum operated by the Minnesota National Historical Society.  It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.  The sender of this card works with kids at a high school, and she said she had taken they had taken a recent field trip to this farm.  She told me they baked crackers, harvested turnips, and saw sheep in labor.  That sounds like very fun field trip to me!  

mnhs.org/places/sites/ohkf/aboutkelley.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_H._Kelley_Homestead

This card arrived on July 16.

A Bit of Architectural Detail

This lovely postcard arrived from Arkansas on July 12 as well.  The sender took the photograph herself.  She enjoys photographing architectural details, and this is beautiful.   

Wood County, Ohio

This card from Ohio came on July 9 from a small town near Toledo.    

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_County,_Ohio

Space Views from the Hubble Telescope

This card ~ 'Atmospheric Changes on Neptune' ~ arrived on July 7.

This is the caption on the back:

"This view of Neptune shows the planet's rapidly changing weather conditions.  Neptune's remarkably dynamic atmosphere, composed of hydrogen, helium, methane, and hydrocarbons such as ethane and acetylene, changes over just a few days, possibly as a result of the temperature difference between the planet's hot core and its frigid (-260 degrees F) cloud tops."

hubble.nasa.gov/

hubblesite.org/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune

The Outer Banks ~ North Carolina

This card arrived in my mailbox on June 18.  I love the lighthouses - they are fantastic with their black and white stripes!  The lighthouse at the left is Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and the one on the right is Bodie Lighthouse.  Links to National Park Service websites for both are below ~

~  nps.gov/caha/index.htm

~  nps.gov/caha/bodie-island-light-station.htm

The bust is of Orville Wright.  Orville and his brother Wilbur are famous for the first successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903.  Learn more about the Wright Brothers here ~ 

~  nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

The photo on the far right is Elizabethan Gardens.  This looks like a wonderful place to visit. You can stroll through the gardens and enjoy the flowers, or you can have a wedding, party or any other kind of celebration here.  Take a look for yourself at their website ~ 

~ elizabethangardens.org/

Mt. Washington, New Hampshire

This pretty photo card arrived on June 3. At 6,288 feet of elevation, Mt. Washington looks very pretty with it's nice blanket of snow, but to someone from Colorado, this doesn't seems like a 'real' mountain (we have 53 peaks over 14.000 ft in elevation, and over 700 13,000 ft. peaks).  Mt. Washington may not be a '14er', but it is definitely a real mountain -- it is well-known for it's very unpredictable and dangerous weather, and it has held the world record for wind speed (231 mph) since 1934.  It may only 1,008 feet higher than Denver, but you have to respect a mountain like that!

mountwashington.com ~ (down for maintenance as of 6/3/10, but there is a paragraph with a few facts posted on the page).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_(New_Hampshire)

Loggerhead Turtle from Florida

This card arrived on June 16 from Florida.  This is a Loggerhead Turtle.  The back of the card says that the east coast of Florida is the second largest nesting site of Loggerheads in the world.  Nesting season is April through September.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loggerhead_sea_turtle.

Two from the USA

I took a break from Postcrossing for awhile, and didn't send or receive  postcards for about 5 months, so my next cards both arrived in May 2010.  The first one arrived on the 3rd from Oklahoma:

The second arrived on May 7 from Oregon:

This is Sahalie Falls in Oregon.  We used to live in Washington State, and visited Oregon many times.  I cannot remember whether we ever saw Sahalie Falls or not.  They look beautiful, though!  

Greetings from Wisconsin

...by way of California!  This card arrived on October 17, 2009.  Perhaps the sender is originally from Wisconsin, or visited Wisconsin, or just likes Wisconsin?  I don't know, but here is the card he sent me from California:

See You at Sea World!

This happy critter arrived on October 9, 2009 from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This is a postcard from Sea World.

Settling Down...

On September 27, 2009 a nice card arrived from Missouri entitled "Green Acres".

A peaceful scene of dairy cows grazing by a stream.  

Introduction & My First Card

My collection of postcards is small, at least for now.  Currently I have around 30, but hope to have a much larger collection one day. Some of my postcards make me very curious about the place they originate, so I may include links to websites that I've discovered.  Other places may not pique that curiosity, or the card may just be very simple and doesn't need any explanation.  

I joined Postcrossing - http://www.postcrossing.com/ - in August of 2009. Postcrossing is a postcard crossing project (it is simple - you send a postcard, you receive a postcard). It's fun to send a postcard to someone else in the world.  It's even more fun to receive them in the mail!  I've received cards from other postcrossers all over - right here in the USA from Florida to Oregon, California to New Hampshire, and from all over the world.  I've received handmade cards, and beautiful view cards, and I've learned some about places I've never even heard of before!  I hope to continue to share postcards and meet new people for many, many years to come!

This is also a fun way for me to "travel".  I am not much of a real traveler, so in a way exchanging postcards is like having a little bit of the world come to me.  :)


My first postcard came from Ohio here in the USA, and arrived on September 9, 2009.

I was hoping for a card with scenery or history or something interesting, but you take what you get.  Now that I have received more postcards, I like this one more.  I think that if I had received it as something other than the first card, I would not have been disappointed, but might have thought it rather fun. Perhaps I should see if the movie is rentable and then maybe I'll like this card more!  I do like movies from this era!