Spring Time at Bellagio

A departure from the Theme Dutch featuring a giant windmill and live butterflies in the past few years, Spring time at the Bellagio’s Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in 2015 celebrates Japanese culture with more than 82,000 flowers including tulips, daffodils and snapdragons among bonsai trees. Modeled after the Golden Temple in Kyoto, a 26-foot or 8-meter tall Japanese temple in a gold veneer with rice paper Shoji screens is the center piece of the display. Shown on the outgoing postcard US-3373301 to Japan is an 18-foot or 5.5-meter tall cherry blossom tree featuring 300 acrylic leaves and blossoms, with many oil-paper umbrellas hanging from the sky. The Spring Celebration, a collaboration with master gardener Kanji Nomura from Nagoya, Japan, runs from March 20 to May 11, 2015.

Today in history: the German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed instantly while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937; a jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries on May 6, 1981.

Year of the Goat Display at Bellagio

Postcard US-3202783 to USA features a traditional Chinese New Year of the Goat motif on the left panel and a photo of animated goats on a 14-foot or 4.3-meter tall grassy hilltop at Bellagio's Conservatory & Botanical Gardens on the right panel.

From their vantage point, I-Ching coins are seen lining under the foot of the hill; live Koi swimming in a 21,000-gallon pond by the waterfall; children made of more than 1,000 fresh flowers each dancing amid bamboo trees and red lanterns.

The Year of the Goat (or the Year of the Ram, or the Year of the Sheep) decorations are on display at Bellagio from January 9 to March 14, 2015 with daily live music performances between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

#MakeSomeoneHappy

The Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens is partnering with Coca-Cola on Toys for Tots holiday gift drive. For each photo shared on social media with the #BellagioHoliday and #MakeSomeoneHappy hashtags, Coca-cola will donate one dollar to the charity campaign until the total amount reaches $50,000.

#BellagioHoliday, the mother polar bear and the three cubs are made of 37,000 carnations, #MakeSomeoneHappy

Postcard US-2615455 to Indiana was a polar bear shaped card bought at the Everything Coca-Cola Store on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Lighthouse in the Summer

Lighthouse in the Summer

The lighthouse shown on this postcard is currently on their summer 2013 display at the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Las Vegas. The 26-foot (8- meter) tall lighthouse with red-and-white stripes has a rotating light. It is surrounded by colorful dancing kites and thousands of fresh flowers.

New England Coastal Lighthouses Forever Stamps

Also today on July 13, 2013, the U.S. Postal Service has issued five new forever stamps celebrating New England Coastal Lighthouses. It features Portland Head, Cape Elizabeth, Maine; Portsmouth Harbor, New Castle, New Hampshire; Point Judith, Narragansett, Rhode Island; New London Harbor, New London, Connecticut; and Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts.

Electric Daisy Carnival

Summer Display at Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas 2013 starts a few hours ago in the evening on June 21, 2013 and will last for three days until June 23, 2013. It is an international annual electronic dance music festival that drew more than 300,000 people last year in 2012. It is held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where the organizer Insomniac has transformed this 1,000-acre race field into six areas of music, carnival rides, vendor village, interactive art installations and other festival attractions. Sirius XM channel 52 has EDC radio throughout this weekend.

Happy Chinese New Year of the Snake

Year of Snake Maxi Card

Chinese New Year of the Snake starts on February 10, 2013 and ends on January 30, 2014. The Spring Festival celebrations run from Chinese New Year's Eve, February 9, 2013 (the last day of the Year of Dragon), to the Lantern Festival on February 24, 2013, the 15th day of the first month in the lunisolar year.

In Las Vegas, the Chinese New Year has earned an increasing recognition as the longest and most important festival in the Chinese calendar with great appeal to many visitors. The maxi card features the Year of the Snake Display at the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Bellagio, with a "Lunar Year of the Snake 2013 (forever) stamp issued on January 16, 2013, postmarked with the official first-day-of-issue cancellation from San Francisco. As seen on the card and the stamp, firecrackers are fired during the celebrations to scare off evil spirits and usher in renewed hopes for the coming year.

Update: The card was sent as US-2089840, US-2209193, etc.