1000th Card Sent

Postcard US-3972061 to Germany was the 1000th card sent from my PostCrossing account twimbk. It shows a pair of swans forming a heart symbol with love. Swans (天鵝) are birds of the family Anatidae (鴨科) within the genus Cygnus. The geese and ducks are swans' friends close relatives. A previous copy was sent to Russia as US-3284982 under another account.

USPS issued the Quilled Paper Heart Forever stamp at Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas on January 12, 2016, as the 44th stamp in its Love stamp series. The heart on the stamp was created using the ancient art of quilling by rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper, laying them on their edges, and gluing them in place to form intricate designs.

Loving Day

Today is Loving Day, an annual celebration held on June 12 each year, marking the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court ruling "Loving v. Virginia" that struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states. Citing "there can be no doubt that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the equal protection clause," the ruling invalidated U.S. state laws banning interracial marriage, mainly forbidding marriage between non-whites and whites.

Postcard US-3284982 to Russia features a pair of beautiful swans forming a heart shape with red flowers. It was purchased at Zazzle.

I Left my Heart {at Hyde and Lombard Street} in San Francisco

As a captured audience inside the Terminal 2 at the SFO International Airport waiting for my return flight to Las Vegas, I found a rack full of "I left my heart in San Francisco" postcards. Outgoing postcard US-3373240 to Ukraine was one of those that I obligatorily purchased.

The card shows a section of Lombard Street in the Russian Hill neighborhood, a one-way block between Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street, known as the crookedest street in the world with eight sharp turns.

That section of Lombard Street used to be a straight, cobblestone street with a 27% grade which was too steep for most cars. The turns were built in 1922 so that people could drive up and down the hill, until the street was made one-way downhill in 1939. The street was paved with red bricks and about 250 steps were built on each side of the street to accommodate pedestrians.

Now, during the peak tourist season in summer, there are as many as 350 cars driving down the street each hour. However, it was not a popular tourist destination until the late 1950s. I drove down the street twice during my previous visit to San Francisco in 1999. This time, I took the Powell-Hyde cable car to the top of this block earlier today, and took the steps down to Leavenworth Street.

Post Office at Union Square, San Francisco

I still needed to mail the card that I planed to drop off at the LAX airport in Los Angeles. There are plenty of US Mail drop boxes on the street in San Francisco. Since the forecast was overcast with a slight chance of rain, I decided to look for a post office so that the card wouldn't get wet. Google Maps showed a post office at Union Square, on the way from my hotel to the conference site. However, it took me a little effort to find it as it was well hidden in the Macy's basement.

If you enter Macy's main store from Stockton Street, turn left through cosmetics, take escalator down to the basement, turn right through the foodcourt, and find the cookware section, you will see a small "Post Office" sign on the far side with the entrance invisible on the right. If you enter from Farrell Street, take the stairs to the basement and walk all the way to the cookware section on the other side.

It's a small yet full service post office. I came during the lunch hours with little waiting time. There was to be a postal rate increase effective the coming weekend. The staff was very knowledgeable with the details and I was able to save a few nickels by purchasing some USPS Global Forever stamps.

It had been one of the only few United States Post Offices that opens on Sundays. However, effective May 4, 2015 this post office only opens Monday to Saturday.

Outgoing postcard US-3373244 to South Africa shows the Tony Bennett's heart sculpture at the corner of Union Square. The picture below shows the heart-shaped sculpture in its current form, near the Macy's store across the street.

Five Unusual Places to Get Married in Las Vegas

Love is in the air on this Valentine's Day. The high temperature reached 78°C today, the highest in Las Vegas since 1957, creating a sense as if we are already in spring. As the marriage capital of the world, Las Vegas sees more than 120,000 couples who come to tie the knot every year. The Clark County Marriage License Bureau expected to issue around 1,500 marriage licenses during the Valentine’s Day/Presidents' Day weekend. Outgoing postcard US-3224035 to Finland was made of an inverted photo used on Postcard US-2722698, showing a wedding decoration in a store front on the Las Vegas Strip. The stamp was one of the two Love Hearts Forever Stamps issued by USPS on January 22, 2015, depicting the ancient association between eternal love and the heart.

Because it is Las Vegas, you can get get married without getting out of your car via drive-thru or having an Elvis impersonator officiating your wedding. In addition, there are some unusually spots to have your wedding to make it truly memorable. Here are my top five choices.

1. The Las Vegas Springs Preserve, one of the richest and most unique cultural and biological resources in Southern Nevada, offers "green" wedding services at both indoor and outdoor locations in the 180-acre botanical garden including an outdoor amphitheater that can host more than 1,000 guests.
2. Flamingo Las Vegas offers wedding packages at five areas among its 15-acre garden, with waterfalls, date palm trees, exotic waterfowl, or a collage of pools as backdrop. It is known for the Wildlife Habitat that features Chilean flamingos, Ring Tealed ducks, Sacred Ibis, swans, ducks, pelicans, koi fish and turtles.
3. The High Roller Observation Wheel offered free wedding ceremonies on 12/13/14. If you missed that opportunity, you can still book one of their packages for a fee. Since it's predominate in the Las Vegas skyline, you can use it as backdrop from various locations for free.
4. Stratosphere has Chapel in the Clouds where you can say "Yes, I do" 1,149 feet or 350 meters above ground with a panorama view of the city that never sleeps.
5. Only in Las Vegas, you can get married while you are running a marathon. However, that opportunity comes just once a year. The next Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & Half Marathon Race will be November 15, 2015.