Balboa Island

It's summer in San Francisco, and the days are often cold and foggy. While I love living in Northern California, there are times I desperately miss the warm summers in Southern California. This postcard reminds me of Southern California summers on Balboa Island where I spent many hours riding bikes around the "little island" (there are three islands, one connected to the mainland, the other two connected to the "big island" with small bridges), walking along the sea wall looking into the houses at night (no one would consider closing their curtains), grabbing patches of sand to sun in at low tide, and jumping into the bay from a variety of docks, whether we had "official" permission or not. We visited the Ogdens, we rented houses at Easter vacation, we moved from one family's rental house to another as teenagers either staying for a few days or looking for parties, and I spent a lot of time at my friend Chris' house on the bayfront on the little island.

Balboa Island used to be an "everyman" sort of place: tiny houses for rent on a weekly or monthly basis, wet beach towels hanging from porches, Balboa Bars, and the best place to buy a summer bikini, tops and bottoms made to order separately. Now, like most places in or near the Pacific Ocean, it's a place for McMansions crowded on tiny lots, houses that sit empty much of the time, and big powerful boats screaming "Look at me!"

Not sure exactly when this postcard was printed, but judging from the beach chairs, this picture is probably from the 1960s.  My mom had a chair exactly like the ones on the left for years. 

Happy Anniversary!

"Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.  How do you measure, measure a year?"  In case you don't recognize the lyrics, they are from the song "Seasons of Love" in the musical Rent.  The musical and this particular song have always been among my favorites.

Today is the one year anniversary of "A Plethora of Postcards".   First post was July 5, 2009.  So how does one measure a year?  Well, here are a couple ways:

1.  By the number of posts:  The original goal was to post a postcard a day for a year.  As of today (before this post), 354 posts have been logged - not quite 365. There was one planned lapse (my three week trip in April) and one technology-induced lapse over Christmas. I did miss a very few days either because I forgot, or because I was having fun and got home too late.

2.  By the variety of subjects as measured by the tags:  I've attempted to add labels for every post, although I haven't been completely consistent.   A look at the labels shows 22 labels for the Mystery Sender, 15 for California, 12 for Mexico, 10 each for Christmas, colleges, and Postcard Friendship Friday, nine for New York and New York City, eight for England, seven each for Florida, France, Spain, and bucket list, six each for Morocco, Oregon, and Portugal, and five each for China, Fez, London, the Olympics, Paris, Postcrossing, road trips, Thanksgiving, and San Francisco. A marketer or an anthropologist might be able to draw a variety of conclusions about a person whose interests/choices appear as above.  Or not.

3.  By the readers:  There are 45 of you who have registered as "followers".  I appreciate every one of you, some of whom I know and some I don't.  I know some of my friends and relatives show up, perhaps daily, perhaps occasionally, and I always like it when someone mentions having read something of interest here.

4.  By the providers of the content:  There are a host of regular postcard providers including my Mom, the Mystery Sender, my friend Julie who takes the most exotic trips, my friends Chris & Noel who faithfully send cards when they think of it, my friend Yolanda who lives in China right now, my friend Paula who travels a lot, my old friend Rachel in Chicago who always sends something fun [I'm feeling like I am giving an Academy Award speech and am going to forget someone important], my friends Jack and Lorry who send postcards and who support me no matter what hairbrained project I'm up to, my friends Paul and Gayle with whom I pick peaches although we haven't found any peach postcards yet, my new friends and fellow postcard people Chris, Christine, and Sheila, and finally all the folks who participate in Postcrossing and Postcard Friendship Friday.  Phew.  And everybody else who sends me postcards, regularly or not.  Thank you to everyone and for every postcard!

5.  By the amount of time keeping the cards in order:  The sheer volume of postcards and keeping them sorted and choosing which card to post is a challenge.   I am starting to understand why postcard people specialize, whether in bridges or painters or transportation methods or hotels or time periods.

By any measure, it's been great for me.  I've enjoyed the commitment, I've learned about a whole sub-culture of people I never knew existed, I've practiced writing, and I hope I've entertained you to a certain extent.

The question now is, what next?    I'd love any input.

In the meantime, postcards pandering to the old adage "sex sells".

4th of July OR Why Travel Outside Your Own Country is so Important

My friend Tara is a college student who spent last semester in Copenhagen, and took advantage of every spare minute to travel around Europe.  The message on her postcard is a wonderful reminder of why travel is so important.  There's a huge difference between reading history and seeing its traces in person.

The above postcard of the Berlin Wall is an apt 4th of July posting, if nothing else as a reminder of what the lack of freedom looks like.

Happy 4th of July, everybody!

Cambodia

I've been lurching around, trying to think of something clever or at least interesting to say about Cambodia, but all I can think of is the Dead Kennedy's song Holiday in Cambodia.  (Can you hear the chorus:  Pol Pot, Pol Pot Pol Pot......?)

Turns out The Khmer Rouge, led by  the infamous Pol Pot, ran the show in Cambodia for only three years, although it must have felt a lot longer than that to those who lived through their rule.  During that time, it's estimated that one to three MILLION people were killed.   That's a big number.

Nevada

What most people think about when they hear "Nevada" is Las Vegas. And while Las Vegas is Nevada's largest city, and fabulous in its own very cheesy, sleazy way, there's a lot more to Nevada than Viva Las Vegas.

A few years back, we took a family road trip from San Francisco to Aspen, Colorado which, because I had more time on my hands than usual before we left, was pretty specifically planned out. [Regular readers know of my fondness for road trips, but may not know that I often like to just see what happens, without planning.]  One of my goals for this particular road trip was to stay in non-chain hotels/motels only (a tad risky, I'll admit, but much more exciting), and to avoid the Interstates as much as possible.  To my children's great dismay, I succeeded. 

The postcard above left is from the Lariat Motel in Fallon, Nevada, where we stayed our first night.  Considering the age of the postcard (it has to date back at least to the 1970s, if not before, and our trip was sometime in 2001) and the condition of the room, it was pretty clear not much had changed in 30 years, including the bedspreads, furniture and carpeting.  But the motel had a killer neon sign and Fallon, Nevada is the beginning of the "loneliest highway in America" section of Highway 50 which we (okay, maybe just me) were excited to explore.  Road Trip USA describes Highway 50 across Nevada as follows:

Between Lake Tahoe in the west and Great Basin National Park on the Utah border, US-50 crosses more than 400 miles of Nevada’s corrugated country, climbing up and over a dozen distinct mountain ranges while passing through four classic mining towns and the state capital, Carson City. Early explorers mapped this region, Pony Express riders raced across it, and the long-distance Lincoln Highway finally tamed it, but the US-50 byway has always played second fiddle to the I-80 freeway, the more popular northern route across the state. Besides being a more scenic alternative to the mind-numbing, and therefore accident-prone, I-80, US-50 across Nevada has gained a measure of notoriety in its own right—it’s known as the “Loneliest Road in America.” As you travel along it you’ll see road signs, T-shirts, and bumper stickers proclaiming it as such.

Along this route, just outside of Middlegate, NV is one of the finest examples of shoe trees in the country.  Turns out there are currently at least 76 shoe trees on highways across America and it's worth keeping an old pair of tennies in your car, just in case you happen upon one.  On Highway 50, driving across the middle of nowhere at 75 miles per hour with very few trees in sight, the Shoe Tree first appears as an optical illusion.  As there aren't a lot of cars on this stretch of road, it's easy to decide to hang a U-turn and go back and check it out.  Don't miss it!

250 miles later, give or take a few, along the route of the Pony Express, you arrive in Ely, Nevada, whose main street is featured in the postcard, above right.   Ely is the gateway to Great Basin National Park, a national park I had never heard of before I started looking into a route for our trip.  In Great Basin National Park are the Lehman Caves, containing the most incredible collection of stalactites and stalagmites I'd ever seen.  The postcards below pretty much say it all.

Today is Postcard Friendship Friday.  You know what to do.

Nebraska

No postcards for Nebraska.  :(  Don't have any for North Dakota or West Virginia, either. 

Montana

I love postcards featuring an entire state. The shape of Montana lends itself well to this, as noted in a previous post showing a card actually shaped like the state.  

Montana claims a piece of my attention sometimes, in a variety of disparate ways.

1.  Ivan Doig.   He's been called the "dean of western literature" and a "worthy successor to Wallace Stegner."  If you haven't read his novels, particularly the "McCaskill trilogy", consisting of English Creek, Dancing at the Rascal Fair, and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana, you've missed out on something great, especially is you have any interest in the history of the American West.

2.  My friends Claire & Steve.  They moved to Montana last summer.  Steve attended college there and Claire is going back to school for a MSW (Masters in Social Work, specializing in hospice care) after 30 years in the travel business.  Yeah, Claire!

3.  Big Sky.  My friends John and Cindy have a recently completed building a compound.  We spent time at Big Sky when the compound was just a glimmer in John's eye, and haven't yet seen the finished product.  I imagine it to be pretty wonderful.   The whole area is beautiful and close to Yellowstone and offers a wide variety of winter and summer sports.   However, the day we left it was 30 below zero at the Bozeman Airport.   Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Missouri, II

Two more postcards from Missouri, just because.  Because the one on the left is one of the Mystery Sender's favorites and because the one on the right is unusual.

Missouri

In my collection of postcards, for several states I have postcards only of the major city, probably because many of these cards I sent to myself or to my  kids from business trips.   For Missouri, I got lucky.  Turns out the Mystery Sender had sent me the card on the right, allowing me to show both urban and rural parts of Missouri.

For the urban view, a street shot of St. Louis, looking toward its quintessential icon, the Gateway Arch.  The arch is a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, and was designed by Eero Saarinen.  [Random side bar:  Saarinen also designed, with Charles Eames, the Tulip Chair, popularized by its appearance on the original Star Trek television series in the late 1960s.]  For the rural view, a shot of Indian Creek, along "scenic U.S. Route 71 in the Beautiful Ozarks",  located in the far southwest corner of the state.

In thinking about Missouri, I found myself curious as to why it has an uneven southern border with a chunk of the state encroaching into Arkansas.  Called the "Bootheel", there is some debate as to how this came to be.  According to the Wiki, the bootheel originated in the request of some Missourian to remain in the state "as he had heard it was so sickly in Arkansas;" ""...full of bears and panthers and copperhead snakes, so it ain't safe for civilized people to stay there over night even." Another folktale has the adaptation made by a lovestruck surveyor to spare the feelings of a foolish widow living fifty miles south of the Missouri border, but unaware of it. At one time, the area was known locally as "Lapland, because it's the place where Missouri laps over into Arkansas".

Whatever the origin of its border, Missouri shares the distinction with Tennessee of being one of only two states that share borders with eight separate states.  In Missouri's case the states are  Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,  Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Mississippi

 

1 & 2.  Mount Repose and one end of ballroom in Stanton Hall

3 & 4.  Melrose (left) and Stanton Hall (right)

5 & 6.  Lansdown (left) and Richmond (right) with members of Natchez Gardenn Club Royal Court, in costume.











Natchez, Mississippi is the oldest city on the Mississippi River, founded in 1716.  "The first route into Natchez was the Natchez Trace, originally a buffalo trail and later used by Native Americans and early settlers. Flatboat men plied their craft downriver to Natchez or New Orleans, sold their goods and boats, and walked or rode wagons north toward home on the Trace. With the advent of steamboat travel in the early nineteenth century, the Trace fell into disuse."  [There's a word I've only heard used in the South - "trace" - my grandmother used to talk about "Buffalo Trace", a big very old house overlooking the town of Maysville, Kentucky, where she was from.  The Buffalo Trace in the Wiki sounds more like a road than a house.]

Natchez is the home of the twice yearly Natchez Pilgrimage during which many of the town's antebellum mansions are opened for visits.  The city claims it "has more antebellum homes than any other city in the US, as during the War (that would be the American Civil War), Natchez was spared the destruction of many other Southern cities".  The Natchez Pilgrimage Flower Club names a coterie of young people from what are probably old-time and/or otherwise  prestigious local families to serve as the Royal Court. 

The postcards above, of some of the mansions on the tour, came from my grandmother's house - she probably made the Natchez Pilgrimage at one point in her life, perhaps in the 1950s or 1960s.  What is most amazing is, while my grandmother's house wasn't quite as grand (although it was pretty grand), much of the furniture and furnishings from the homes above remind me of hers

Random facts about Mississippi:

1.  The largest city, Jackson, has less than 175,000 inhabitants.

2.  The American Litter Scorecard (that's a new one on me) ranks Mississippi dead last in terms of removing litter from its highways.

3.  In 1966 (!!!), Mississippi was the last state to repeal the prohibition of alcohol statewide.

 M-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i. It's difficult for me to even say the word "Mississippi" without the rhythmic spelling of the name echoing through my head. I imagine most American school children, at least those of my generation, do the same. Do you?

P.S.  Hard to even write about Mississippi without thinking about the globs of oil polluting their coastline and waterways right now.  Say a prayer for the Gulf, every time you get a chance.

Minnesota

Only one postcard from Minnesota, unless there's more in the stack I just uncovered today.  I found a very large box in my closet that had over 1000 advertising postcards in it (called "free cards, I learned today), as well as several cards that were sent to me over the years, or that were part of my grandmother and mother's collections.

In any case, a blast from my past.  The woman who sent the card worked with me in San Francisco but was from Minneapolis and has long since moved back to be closer to her family.  As I recall, some of her family ended up in California!  The way the world works sometimes.

Four random facts about Minnesota:

1.  70% of the state's population is of German and Scandinavian heritage, and is 88% white.
2.  Prince, Garrison Keillor, and Jessica Lange are all from Minnesota.  [What's your favorite Prince song?  Mine is Go Crazy.  I've seen him in concert once.]
3.  Movies and TV shows set in Minnesota include Fargo, Juno,  and the Mary Tyler Moore Show were all set in Minnesota.
4.  The Minnesota State Fair is known for, among other things, the butter sculptures of the dairy princess, also called "Princess Kay of the Milky Way".

Michigan

Seems I haven't done a "seven states in a row" series in a while, so I thought I'd start one today. This series will take us through Nevada. First up, Michigan.

Considering Michigan is the 11th largest state in the US, I was a bit surprised to find that every postcard I have of Michigan is of Detroit. Three of the four cards I sent to myself from business trips, but the card in the lower right corner was sent to me by the Mystery Sender with these random facts about Michigan on the back:

1. Colon, Michigan is home to the world's largest manufacturer of magic supplies.
2. Novi, Michigan was named for its designation as "Stagecoach Stop #6" or "No.VI" [Note: See section on Wiki about origin of name - Random fact #2 may be historically innacurate - an early urban legend, perhaps.]
3. Michigan ranks first in state boat registrations. (Who knew?)
4. The painted turtle is the state's reptile.
5. Indian River, Michigan is home to the largest crucifix in the world - the Cross in the Woods.
6. Michigan has more shoreline than any other state except Alaska. (Wow!)

A random (and frightening) fact about Detroit is that as of February 2010, its unemployment rate was 25.6%. I doubt the rate has improved much; if anything it's probably worse.

Not a Great Day

Not a great day today, so I think I'll take the advice of Nancy and her card from Germany, who sent this via Postcrossing:  "Sometimes we have to relax."  

P.S.  It's Postcard Friendship Friday.  Check it out.

Lisbon - The Retraction

In May of this year, I spent a week in Portugal. When I returned, I posted a few postcards from my trip.  One of these posts, that of May 31 requires a retraction.  (I feel like the New York Times having to make a correction.  Okay, maybe not.)

In it, I described how our tour guide had told us that Lisbon was known for identifying monuments and other structures they liked and admired, and building their own versions.  The Triumphal Arch ("Arco do Triunfo e Rua Augusta") was  cited as an example of this.  In the Postcrossing postcard above, Joana corrects me:  "I read on your blog what you wrote about it and I have to make a correction.  The Arch is actually older than the one in Paris.  This one was built in 1775 although it was then demolished and rebuilt in 1875.  Even so it is not at all a copy of the one in Paris."

Joana, this correction is for you! 

Lucy the Elephant, Again!

Who would imagine that I'd receive another postcard of Lucy the Elephant?  Well, here she is.  For details on Lucy, see previous post here.

Dutch Artists Marte Roling and Henk Jurriaans

I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  One of my favorite things about Postcrossing is learning about new artists, unusual locations, innovative peformers, and popular local musicians I wouldn't necessarily have heard of any other way.  Here's another example.

The above is a painting by Marte Roling, a Dutch artist and actress, of another Dutch artist, Henk Jurriaans. The two artists, along with three other women, lived together for many years.  Marte Roling was known for smoking cigars, wearing heavy make-up and large paintings and sculptures.  She was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion in January 2010.

Henk Jurriaans was both a psychologist and an artist.  In his therapy practice, he had an unusual approach:  he advised his clients and followers to "do what you love and just stop doing what you find annoying". While this advice may have been perfectly suited to the zeitgeist of the 1970s, it may have been a bit problematic in practice for sufferers of any number of psychological conditions:  ablutophobia (fear of bathing, washing, or cleaning), phagophobia (fear of swallowing), somniphobia (fear of sleep), or my two personal favorite phobias - phobophobia (fear of having a phobia) and.anatidaephobia (fear of being watched by a duck).  Check out the complete list of phobias here. 

But I digress.   Another of his messages was "I'm okay. You're a dick", although that phrasaeology is from automatic translation software, so I'm not positive that's exactly what he said. In an interview after his death, Marte Roling said that this phrase was just a commentary on a very popular book at the time, "I'm Okay, You're Okay."

Jurriaans was well-known for offering up himself and the four women he lived with for an hour per day for 25 days in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam as "living art".  He may have been a conceptual artist only, as I was unable to find any other references to his art work.

P.S.  A shout out to Shira from the Netherlands for such a cool postcard.  Thanks, Shira!

Bourbon/Whiskey III

More than any other alcohol, Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey reminds me of bars and bikers and blues bands. In my mind's ear I can hear a scruffy guy belly up to the bar and order a "Jack" on the rocks, or ask for a "Black Label" and mean Jack Daniels, not Johnny Walker.

Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whiskey, with an "e" (in whiskey, that is that was established in either 1866 or 1875, and it is hard to know which of the stories around the brand are advertising fabrications/corporate "legend" and which are truth. The Jack Daniels website is beautifully designed and appears to have a wealth of information and history, but is horrific from a useability standpoint. Too bad, because even if the stories aren't the complete truth, the ones I looked at were interesting to read.

According to the Wiki on Jack Daniels, "Tennessee whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal in large wooden vats prior to aging, unlike the process used to make Kentucky bourbon." Three days of bourbon/whiskey postcards and I still find this bourbon/whiskey distinction confusing, to say the least.

Bourbon/Whisky II

George Dickel is a sour mash whisky distiller from Tennesse, "nestled on the Highland Rim of the Cumberland Plateau, ... halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga".  George Dickel  "declared that because his whisky was as smooth as the finest scotch, he would always spell the “whiskey” in George Dickel Tennessee Whisky without an “e”, keeping with the Scotch whisky tradition."

I like bourbon, but I am by no means an afficianado.  However, I imagine discussions about the quality of the water (both Maker's Mark and George Dickel only use water emanating from limestone spring water), experience of the distiller, quality of the oak barrels, and a number of other factors could become quite animated, especially after more than one glass of bourbon.

Bourbon

Its a logical segue from a Kentucky horse racing course to a short series on bourbons and whiskeys. 

The first question to be answered, not surprisingly, is:  what is the difference between bourbon and whiskey?  The short answer is:  not all whiskey is bourbon, but all bourbon is whiskey.  Bourbon must be aged in charred oak barrels and aged for two or more years.  The longer and pretty interesting answer from "The Straight Dope" website is:

A definition of whiskey/whisky from www.kentuckyconnect.com: "Whisky is an alcoholic distillate from a fermented mash of grain produced at less than 190 proof in such a manner that the distillate possesses the taste, aroma, and characteristics generally attributed to whiskey, stored in oak containers (except that corn whisky need not be so stored), and bottled at not less than 80 proof, and also includes mixtures of such distillates for which no specific standards of identity are prescribed."

For a whiskey to qualify as bourbon, the law--by international agreement--stipulates that it must be made in the USA. It must be made from at least 51% and no more than 79% Indian corn, and aged for at least two years. (Most bourbon is aged for four years or more.) The barrels for aging can be made of any kind of new oak, charred on the inside. Nowadays all distillers use American White Oak, because it is porous enough to help the bourbon age well, but not so porous that it will allow barrels to leak. It must be distilled at no more than 160 proof (80% alcohol by volume). Nothing can be added at bottling to enhance flavor or sweetness or alter color. The other grains used to make bourbon, though not stipulated by law, are malted barley and either rye or wheat. Some Kentucky bourbon makers claim that the same limestone spring water that makes thoroughbred horses' bones strong gives bourbon whiskey its distinctive flavor. Kind of like that "it's the water" thing with Olympia beer.

Bourbon can be made anywhere in the U.S., but all but a couple of brands are made in Kentucky. Only the state of Kentucky can produce bourbon with its name on the label. The name comes from Bourbon county in the central bluegrass region of Kentucky. This county was named in 1785 to honor the French royal family and was once the major transshipment site for shipping distilled spirits down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Barrels shipped from there were stamped with the county's name, which then became the name of this kind of whiskey. Interestingly, there are no distillers in Bourbon county, Kentucky right now.

As to Maker's Mark Bourbon, the distillery building itself may be historic, but the brand "Maker's Mark" was first introduced in 1959.  With its distinctive red wax seal and squarish bottle, it is unique in that it is one of very few American whiskeys to use the Scottish spelling, "whisky". Maker's Mark enjoys a bit of a cult status among some bourbon drinkers, and for years its advertising slogan was  "It tastes expensive ... and is." 

This bourbon is aged from six to seven and one-half years with a panel deciding when it is ready for bottling.  From the Maker's Mark website, "To make sure we always put the same great tasting bourbon out there we created a tasting panel. It's made up of 16 men and woman, and it includes the Master Distiller. Each barrel is sampled five times during the maturation process. Maybe a couple other times, as well. You know, just to be sure."  On the website, you have to submit a birthdate to "prove" you are over 21. Th e sitealso includes recipes, including the Kentucky Ice Tea - an Arnold Palmer, but with bourbon added to the mix.  Sounds pretty good, if you like bourbon.  I do.

Horse Racing Venues - III

If not an entire postcard, the above is at least a half a postcard of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, and among the most famous horse racing tracks in the US, if not the entire horse racing world.  It is also known for being the first race course to host a Rolling Stones concert in 2006.

This short series on race tracks led me to wonder about horse racing elsewhere in the world.  Turns out thoroughbred breeding started in England, and expanded to France, the US, Argentina, and much later, Japan.   There are race tracks (frequently called "hippodromos" in non-English speaking countries) in at least 44 countries.  (For a complete list, see here.)  Given the specialist postcard collections I've stumbled across, I don't doubt that somewhere there is a deltiologist specializing in race courses worldwide.

P.S.  It's Postcard Friendship Friday.  The big question is, how did we get to another Friday so fast?