USA - Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad

I received this card in the railway tag, which unfortunately isn't very popular. It's a pity that I can't find any card showing trains here, but this tag allows also sending cards showing railway stations and it really helps me :) Still, I wouldn't like anyone to be dissapointed by the cards I send (and myself I prefer receiving cards showing trains much more than railway stations), so I've participated in this tag just once so far. It shows the Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad in Ohio, USA.

Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad is located 1 mile South of Nelsonville, Ohio. This tourist attraction operates throughout the summer months on Saturdays, Sundays and major holidays.

USA - Map of Mississippi (US-372995)

I'm still very far away from having map cards of all states of the USA (it's my 5th card showing the map of whole state), but I'm always glad to receive a new one :) This time it's a map of Mississipi state, also called The Magnolia State.
Here some information about the Mississipi state taken from the back side of this card:

Capital: Jackson
State flower: Magnolia
State bird: Mockingbird

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Mississippi is a state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area. Its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia tree.

The state of Mississippi is entirely composed of lowlands, the highest point being Woodall Mountain, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, only 806 feet (246 m) above sea level. The lowest point is sea level at the Gulf coast. The mean elevation in the state is 300 feet (91 m) above sea level.

USA - Clearwater Beach, Florida (US-362398)

The cards that I receive from Florida are always special for me in some way, because, as I've already written for many times, that's the only state in USA that I've been to. I can't say it's my favorite place on the earth or that it's my dream to come back there. But it was certainly an interesting experience, something exotic... and I'm glad I went there at 13, because now there are so many other problems and things to do that I would probably never go to America, even if I had a lot of money.

I haven't been to Clearwater Beach, but it reminds me some other beaches in Florida. The nature is really wonderful - sandy beach, all these small islands... But I think it would look better without all those houses. Well, I know that many people like such "civilised" places at the seaside :) I prefer "wild" beaches, without any buildings and with not so many people. But of course, I wouldn't complain if I could go to Clearwater Beach, especially during the winter :))

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Clearwater Beach is located on the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas County on the west central coast of Florida in the United States. The geographic latitude is 27.57 N and longitude 82.48 W. The slogan, "The White Sand Paradise that is Clearwater Beach, Florida" has been used to describe the beach. It is characterized by its white sand beach which stretches for 2.5 miles along the Gulf. This subtropical beach is visited by many tourists annually. Clearwater Beach is approximately 20 miles from Tampa International Airport, Clearwater Beach offers entertainment such as parasailing, jet skiing, boat tours (with a common site of seeing dolphins in the Gulf waters), restaurants and bars within walking distance of the beach, fishing charter boats and pirate ship cruise tours.

USA - State Flags

This card is something that I absolutely love :)) I haven't received any card with so many flags on it before! Actually, this card is quite inspirating for me, because it makes me want to learn more about some states, about their history and the origin of flags. I read all the names of states and the only one which doesn't sound familiar at all is Delaware. But no, it doesn't mean that I know the geography of United States so well... I know the location of some 15 or 20 states. The other names I know... probably from the American movies. I nearly never go to cinema and I rarely watch TV, but most of movies that I've watched in my life were American, so the names of states just stayed in my memory.
Maybe I should try to collect cards from all the 50 states? I'm not sure if I'd ever reach this goal, but at least I'd learn US geography much better :)




Some offtopic: As it was my birthday yesterday, my granny gave me 2 big photo albums (300 photos each) to store my postcards, at least the ones of standard size :) Can you image, how happy I am about it? :)) I spent several hours putting my cards into the albums (and I haven't finnished yet) and now I can clearly see that these 2 albums won't be enough very soon :) I want to thank everyone who has helped me to fill these albums with postcards and made me smile each time I found cards in my mailbox :)

USA - Cactuses in Arizona (US-351997)

Last time I feel like making updated on my blog more frequently, that's why I decided to make smaller ones (probably with 3 cards instead of 5 each time), but more regularly. I'll also post stamps together with the cards (of course, not every card that I receive is stamped and some of them have the usual stamps - like the ones with flowers from Germany, but I think that some stamps are really worth sharing). Of course, I can't guarantee that I'll stick to the new "rules" for a long time, because I'm not one of these people, who like organising and planning all their activities :)

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Although cactuses weren't on my wishlist, this card immediatelly became one of my all-time favorites, when I received it :) Sometimes you just have to see something to know that you'd like to add it to your wishes. I like cactuses and I have 2 at home (of course, much smaller ones and I doubt if they'll grow alot) :) I've seen such desert landscape with enormous cactuses in some American movies... I find it much more interesting than a simple desert :) By the way, acording to the sender, native Indians call these cactuses "saguaro", which means "people", because at night tall cactuses look human.

USA - Olympia (US-347302)

This card shows Olympia, the capital of Washington state. By the way, I find it quite interesting, that the state capitals in USA usually aren't very big or well-known cities. In Europe, the region's largest city is usually it's capital. Of course, there are some exceptions, but it seems to me that in America it's completely different. For example, the population of Olympia is just less than 45,000 people. I wonder, what's the reason?

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Olympia is the capital of Washington and is the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 44,460 at the 2007 census. Olympia is a major cultural center of the Puget Sound region.

The site of Olympia was home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples for thousands of years, including Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish.

The first recorded visit by Europeans was in 1792 when Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition charted the site. In the 1840s, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.

In 1853 the town settled on the name Olympia due to its view of the Olympic Mountains to the northwest. It is also claimed to be the farthest point on The Oregon Trail.

USA - Boston (US-321256)

This postcard shows the North End neighborhood in Boston. According to the sender, there's a large Italian population and many wonderful restaurants. Yes, it really seems to be a nice place to eat something and to drink coffee :) Here's the information from the back side of the postcard:

Opened in 1932, Polcari's Coffee is a neighborhood institution located in Boston's Italian-American North End. The storefront is a gathering place for the elder statesmen of the neighborhood who spend sunny days in lawn chairs advising tourists, listening to the Red Sox, and debating local politics.

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USA - Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island (US-304907)

I think this card is kind of ad of the Grand Hotel, but also lets you see a bit of the Mackinac Island in Michigan, USA.

The Grand Hotel is a historic lodging facility located on Mackinac Island, Michigan, a small island located at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac within Lake Huron between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. Constructed in the late 19th century, the facility advertises itself as having the world's largest porch. The Grand Hotel is well known for a number of notable visitors, including five U.S. presidents, inventor Thomas Edison, and author Mark Twain.

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USA - map of Florida (US-301869)

This wonderful card shows the map of only American state that I've been to :) I've visited Key West, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando and Cape Canaveral. I have great memories especially about the summer weather in February, which was something very unusual for me :) Still, I prefer Europe, but I don't regret visiting USA at all. I think it's one of life adventures that I'll always remember, even if I was only 13 then :)

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USA - Whidbey Island (US-294331)

I've been receiving many map card from USA as officials last weeks and I'm really happy about it :) This one shows the Whidbey Island in the Washington state. By the way, I used to think that Washington state was probably somewhere close to Washington city... But Postcrossing is very helpful, when it comes to treating geographic ignorance ;)

Whidbey Island is the longest island in the United States. It was discovered in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver and named after Joseph Whidbe, a member of his party, who found Deception Pass.

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USA - California Missions (US-294847)

I really love this map card!!! :)) Not only because it's a map card, but also because it's about the history and religion, which I'm interested in :) There's also information about this card on it's back side, so I can share it with you:

The founding of the Spanish Missions in California furnished an epic in history. these historical monuments are reminders of the great Franciscan adventure. Years of patient labor, decades of heroic sacrifice by Fray Junipera Serra and his Franciscan brothers lie behind the era of the founding of the 21 Missions and their branches, the ruins of which still stand in wonder and beauty at various points along 600 miles of California's glorious coastal region.

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USA - Lake Erie lighthouses (US-294925)

I really like it, when there's some information about the card printed on it's backside :) I don't have to use Wikipedia then ;) But, before I copy the info about this card, I must tell you that there's definitely something special about the lighthouses. I've visited some (I can't remember exactly, how many) on the Polish seaside. When I was a child, I enjoyed counting the stairs (there are usually about 200, if I remember well). Later I tried to imagine living in a lighthouse, being alone with your thoughts there during a storm. Would I enjoy it? Probably yes, but not for a long time. I also remember reading a short story by a famous Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, about a Polish man, who worked in a lighthouse somewhere in Central America (was it Panama?). Once he received a famous Polish book, started reading it, then had a dream about Poland (which wasn't independent at that time), fell asleep, forgot to turn on the light and caused and a ship crashed because of him. The man lost his job, but he felt better, because he had a part of his homeland (the book) with himself. That was so sad...
Nowadays navigation is so much easier... But making our lives easier means also losing some symbols, just like the light, which has always been the symbol of hope and the right way.

I'm sorry for writing so much :)
So, here's the information about this card:

Navigation on Lake Erie has been aided since the nineteenth century by lighthouses dotting the Ohio shoreline. The Marblehead Lighthouse, constructed in 1821, is the oldest working lighthouse on the Great Lakes. Left: Marblehead, Top Center: Lorain, Middle Center: Cleveland, Bottom Center: Mentor Headlands, Right: Farport Harbor

USA (US-288939)

I received this official card from Illinois. It has a nice quote on the backside: "No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish" - John Ruskin. I think there's much truth in it...

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USA - Minnesota (US-286203)

I must admit that I envy Americans a bit, because they have wonderful map cards of each state (at least I think so, because I've already received some of them) :) It's not so easy to find a map card here, in Poland...
This card arrived a bit damaged, but that's not so important :) It's a map of Minnesota state.

Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. The state is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Those lakes and rivers that gave the state its name, and its forests, parks, and wilderness areas offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Nearly sixty percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area known as the Twin Cities, the center of transportation, business, and industry, and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; eastern deciduous forests, also heavily farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods. The state's image of being populated by whites of Nordic and German descent has some truth, but diversity is increasing. Substantial influxes of African, Asian, and Latin American immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants and of the original Native American inhabitants.

The state is known for its moderate to liberal politics and social policies, its civic involvement, and high voter turnout. It ranks among the healthiest states, and has one of the most highly educated and literate populations.

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USA - The Legend of the Sea Star (US-273658)

I think this card doesn't need any comment :) I love the legend and I love the colors of this card. I can just add that this card was sent from Tampa, a city in Florida, where I spent 3 weeks in 2004 :) That was my only trip to America so far.

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USA - Cape Cod (US-271911)

If you read my blog sometimes, you probably know that I absolutely love the map cards :) This one shows the Cape Cod in Massachusetts, which is a great tourist attraction according to the sender.

Cape Cod (or simply the Cape to most New Englanders) is a peninsula nearly coextensive with Barnstable County, Massachusetts and forming the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. The Cape's small town character and beachfront brings heavy tourism during the summer months.

Although the Cape was originally connected to the mainland, the Cape Cod Canal, which opened in 1914, technically transformed Cape Cod into a large island (though it is not normally referred to as such). Three bridges span the canal from the Massachuetts mainland to the Cape. Vehicles can cross onto the Cape via the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge; the other is the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge.

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USA - Boldt Castle

To be honest, when I found this postcard in my mailbox, I thought it must be somewhere in Europe :) But no, it's really in the United States!
I like it when cards have some description (it doesn't mean that I don't like using Wikipedia... I like it, but I think cards should have some description for these people, who don't use other sources, but would like to have some idea about the cards they receive) :) So, this time, I'll just copy what is written on the back side of this card:

Boldt Castle, 1000 Islands
Located on Heart Island in the St. Lawrence River, this magnificent structure was built by George Boldt for his wife at cost of over 2 million dollars in the early 1900's. It was never completed due to her death.

USA - Georgia (US-252600)

Thanks to this postcard, I found out that peaches are very important for Georgia's economy. I'm quite good at geography and I know, where is Georgia, but I don't really know, where do all of fruits grow. The sender writes that other big crops of Georgia are cotton and peanuts. And I haven't seen peach flowers before ;)
I used to like peaches very much, when I was a child. Once my mother gave me some money to buy sweets and she was very surprised, when I came back with peaches ;) I still like them, especially because of their color ;)

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USA - Montana (US-249624)

I've got another map card in my collection! :) And it's one of my favorite ones! It makes me sure that many postcrossers still put some effort to choose a nice official card that would fit the receiver's wishes :)

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western one-third of the state has numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named) of the northern Rocky Mountains; thus the state's name, derived from the Spanish word montaña 'mountain.' The state nickname is the "Treasure State." Other nicknames include "Land of Shining Mountains", "Big Sky Country", and the slogan "the last best place". The economy is primarily based on ranching and wheat farming in the east, lumber and tourism in the west, oil and coal in the east, and hard rock mining in the west. Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Battle of Little Bighorn site, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.

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USA - Yellowstone National Park (US-240604)

I received this official card from Utah, but it shows the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. More precisely, is shows the Kepler Cascades that drops 50 feet over 3 steps as the Firehole River flows North, located aproximately 2 miles south of Old Faithful.

Yellowstone National Park, set aside as a national park on March 1, 1872, is located mostly in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho. The park was the first of its kind, and is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular areas in the park. It has many types of ecosystems, but the Boreal forest is dominant.

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