Wellington Cable Car at Sunrise, New Zealand

Postcard NZ-146552 from New Zealand shows a stunning sunrise with the Wellington Cable Car in the forefront. Established in 1902, Wellington’s historic Cable Car is the only cable railway currently in operation in New Zealand.

For visitors, no trip to Wellington is complete without a ride on the famous cable car; for locals, it's more than a commute. A good way to spend a morning is to get to the top of the Botanic Gardens early to watch the sunrise and view the cityscape. You will need to check the local sunrise time and the cable car timetable to plan the trip. Stop at the Cable Car Museum that was the original winding house. Then walk down to the city's central business district through the beautiful gardens and old houses.

The Cable Car is currently closed from June 7 to July 31, 2016 for upgrade.

The Centennial of Ellis Island

According to the Palm Beach Post, USPS honored the centennial of Ellis Island on May 11, 1992 with a 19-cent historic preservation postal card. First-day ceremonies were held at 11 a.m. just outside of the Great Hall's Museum. The card's indicium, the imprinted stamp with 19-cent pre-paid postage, was designed by East Norwich, N.Y., artist Howard Kos-low.

From its opening in 1892 through 1954, more than 12 million immigrants were processed through Ellis Island, located in Upper New York Bay. Today, we celebrate its 124th anniversary.

The Sacrament of the Last Supper

Postcard US-3957031 to China shows a painting The Sacrament of the Last Supper by Salvador Dalí. Completed in 1955 after nine months of work, it remains one of his most popular compositions. Since its arrival at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1955, it replaced Renoir's A Girl with a Watering Can as the most popular piece in the museum.

California State Railroad Museum

Outgoing postcard US-3911531 to Slovakia shows the EMD E-9A diesel-electric locomotive No. 6051 at the California State Railroad Museum. This large, streamlined locomotive was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in 1954. It had served the Southern Pacific Railroad for 15 years before it was donated to the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society for the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, California in 1969.

Orton Hall at OSU, Ohio

Postcard US-3620809 to China shows Orton Hall, one of the oldest remaining buildings on Ohio State University campus. Opened in 1893, it was named after Dr Edward Orton, Sr. who served as OSU's first president, Professor of Geology from 1873 to 1899, and Ohio's State Geologist from 1882 until his death in 1899.

According to Wikipedia, the Hall is built of forty different Ohio building stones. In the outside walls, these stones are laid in stratigraphic order according to their relative positions in Ohio's bedrock. The capitals of the numbered columns in the entrance hall feature carvings of fossils, such as trilobites, as well as other objects such as the races of Man. The bell tower was dedicated in 1915 and contains 25,000 pounds of bells that can be heard regularly tolling across campus in the key of E-flat. Encircling the top of the tower are 24 columns with gargoyle-like figures which are restorations of fossil animals. Orton Hall was placed into the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1970, along with University Hall and Hayes Hall. It presently hosts the School of Earth Science, laboratories of Paleontology, Historical Geology and Sedimentology, the Orton Geological Museum, and the Orton Geological Library.

Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida

Postcard US-3866949 from Iowa shows the St. Augustine Light Station, located at the north end of Anastasia Island in St. Augustine, Florida. Built in 1874, it is an active, privately owned lighthouse and a not-for-profit maritime museum open to the public.

Florida will help its presidential primary tomorrow on Tuesday March 15, 2016. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the favorites to win their respective parties' nominations in the state according to the recent polls.

Update on 3/15/2016: Clinton and Trump won decisively in Florida primary. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suspended his presidential campaign after a loss of almost 20 points to Donald Trump in Rubio's home state.

Solivar pri Prešove

Postcard SK-52960 from  Slovakia shows Solivar near Prešov, "Saltworks," a branch of the Slovak Technical Museum. Opened in 2001, it focuses on history and technology for boiling and producing of salt.

The card is listed for sale on the museum's site for 0.50 EUR. The building on the right, where salt was cooked, now serves as the main building of the museum. The building on the left, an old repository, was affected by a fire and it is being restored. Dušan Balara has published an aerial video on YouTube showing the restoration in progress.

Will Rogers Memorial Museum

Outgoing postcard US-3368790 to Germany was a vintage linen postcard with an aerial view of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum and Tomb in Claremore, Oklahoma that commemorates Native American social commentator and actor Will Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) who was one of the world's most famous stars in the 1920s and 1930s. The museum houses artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, and manuscripts pertaining to Rogers' life, and documentaries, speeches, and movies starring Rogers are shown in a theater. He made 71 movies and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. Rogers died in 1935 during a small airplane crash in Alaska. His tomb is located on its 20-acre or 8-hectare grounds overlooking Claremore and Rogers State University. The museum opened in 1938, three years after his death.

May 18 is the International Museum Day. The theme for 2015 is "Museums for a sustainable society."

I ♥ Kraków

Postcard PL-1034007 was a shaped card showing the Renaissance Cloth Hall at the Main Square in the Old Town of Kraków, Poland.

Located on the Vistula River, Kraków is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland, dating back to the 7th century. Historically an early trade center and once the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1569, it is one of the most important Polish academic, cultural, and artistic centers and  economic hubs, with 8 million people living within 100 kilometers or 62 miles of the city center.

At 40,000 square meters or 430,000 square feet, its Main Square is the largest medieval town square in Europe, also one of the best public spaces in Europe due to its lively street life, surrounded by historic townhouses, palaces and churches. Rebuilt in 1555 in the Renaissance style, the Cloth Hall is the dominated feature of the Main Square as one of the city's most recognizable icons. Once a meeting place for traveling merchants who met there to discuss business and to barter, the Cloth Hall is still used as a center of commerce. As a culture venue, it has received many distinguished guests and dignitaries, hosted receptions and performances, and housed the Sukiennice Museum division of the National Museum on its upper floor.

The Kraków Old Town was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

Great Lakes Naval Training Center

Outgoing postcard US-3202777 to Poland shows an event on Ross Field, carrying on a long tradition of Naval Ceremony at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (NTC), home to the Navy's largest Recruit Training Command as well as the largest Service School Command. The NTC was dedicated in 1911 and is located on Lake Michigan, just 35 miles north of Chicago and 45 miles south of Milwaukee.

The Great Lakes Naval Museum, one of fifteen official U.S. Navy museums, is nearby.

Wabash F7A #1189 Locomotive

Postcard US-3064218 from Illinois shows Wabash F7A #1189 locomotive, which was the last F unit built for the Wabash Railroad by General Motors Diesel (GMD) at London, Ontario, Canada in April 1953. As the last operating F7 on the Norfolk and Western, it was retired on September 18, 1979 and donated to the Monticello Railway Museum in 1982. One weekend a year, Wabash #1189 and CN #6789 get to run on the mainline track.

Schöne Grüße aus Daun

Postcard DE-3495274 was a nice greeting from Daun, Germany. It shows die Dauner Maare, a group of three volcanic lakes 2.5 km  (1.6 mi) to 3.5 km (2.2 mi) southeast of Daun’s town center. The main town of Daun has only about 5,000 permanent residents. It is known as a spa town and the mineral water springs in the surrounding area, due to the volcanic geological features in the area. Daun is home to the Eifel-Vulkanmuseum, a museum dedicated to provide information about volcanic and other geological phenomena in Eifel and world wide, using interactive computer models to explain the exciting and complex geological processes including both physical and chemical processes. 

Mühlenmuseum in Hiesfeld, Germany

Postcard DE-3395051 from Germany shows the Mühlenmuseum, the Mill Museum,  in the small neighborhood of Hiesfeld, Dinslaken, Germany. The museum has a watermill and a windmill, serving to show the development of millers' crafts in history. It is one of the 200 museums in the Ruhr District, the largest metropolitan area in Germany.

Surrounded by the beautiful nature, the wind mill was originally built in 1822 at the center of what is now the district of Hiesfeld. The water mill was built close by the Rotbach river in 1693. Both mills have since been restored. The museum also has a collection of over 60 model mills from around the world. The admission is free.

Titanic Memorial Lighthouse

Postcard US-2849023 to Portugal shows the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, at the entrance to the South Street Seaport in New York City, New York.

The 60-foot or 18-meter lighthouse was originally built on the roof of the old Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey at the corner of South Street and Coenties Slip in 1913, over looking the East River. The time ball on the top of the lighthouse, activated by a radio signal from the Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., would drop down the pole to signal 12:00 at noon to the ships in the harbor from 1913 to 1967.

When the Seamen's Church Institute moved to 15 State Street in July 1968, the lighthouse was donated to the South Street Seaport Museum. It was erected on the corner of Fulton and Pearl streets in May, 1976. It is one of those memorials in the U.S., Canada, England and Northern Ireland that remember the people perished on the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.

Kiev Water Museum

Postcard UA-1093827 from Ukraine shows the Water Museum in Kiev, Ukraine. Kiev has several museums dedicated to the city's infrastructure and services, such as Kiev Fire Service Museum, Kiev Pharmacy Museum, Kiev Recycling Museum, Kiev Sewer Museum, the National Museum of Health Care in Kiev, and Kiev Water Museum,

The Water sits in the park "Kreschaty" on a hill with its water towers and reservoirs, as part of the natural and cultural center. The site was once the Royal Garden, founded in 1743 by order of the Empress Elizabeth. The old water towers and reservoirs were renovated in 2003, and the first Ukrainian Water Information Center was introduced to tell the story of Kiev's water usage from the river to the tap and back to the river again. It has a giant toilet, a bubble making station, and a Koi aquarium that are not only educational but also entertaining.

As we witness the water levels at the Lake Mead dropping to a new record low in Las Vegas, copping with water shortage has becoming a struggle world wide.

Also 101 years ago today, the temperature at Death Valley, California, hit 134°F or 57°C on July 10, 1913, the highest recorded in the United States.

House of Christopher Columbus in Genova, Italy

Postcard IT-251822 from Italy shows the house of Christopher Columbus in Genoa, reconstructed in the eighteenth century, where he lived in his youth.

Christopher Columbus, born between October 31, 1450 and October 30, 1451 in the Republic of Genoa and passed away on May 20, 1506, was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he carried out four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to discovery of the New World.

Now a museum of the City, the house is located not far from the Gates, just outside the ancient medieval walls . Historical records indicated that Christoper Columbus lived there between 1455 and 1470 .

Peking at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City

Outgoing postcard US-2452506 to Germany shows Peking, a steel-hulled four-masted barque which is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts, at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City.

Built in Hamburg, Germany in 1911, Peking is one of the famous "Flying P Liners" of F. Laeisz Lines. Used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade, Peking made voyages from Europe to the west coast of South America around the often treacherous Cape Horn with general cargo and returned filled with guano for use in the making of fertilizer and explosives. Peking was made famous by the Irving Johnson film Around Cape Horn which documented her 1929 passage around the southern tip of South America in hurricane conditions.

The Peking was retired in 1975 and sold to Jack Aron, for the South Street Seaport Museum. However, the Museum does not have the Peking included in their long-term operational plan. In 2012, an offer was made to Hamburg, to return the ship to its port of building as a gift. The plan was not successful as the effort to raise an endowment in Germany to ensure the preservation of the vessel fell short.

The photo on the postcard was taken on November 20, 2011 when I traveled to New York City with a JetBlue unlimited BluePass. The ship, still moored at the South Street Seaport as of 2013, is in need of extensive repairs. The museum is opening Peking to the public every Saturday 12:00 - 4:00 pm from September 7 to October 19, 2013 with $5 suggested donation. With its future uncertain, today (October 12) and next Saturday (October 19) may be your last chances to visit the ship on board.

Sustainable Style: Fashion and Photography

It is the Museums on Us by Bank of America weekend again on October 5 and 6 in 2013. You can get a free admission to one of more than 150 participating museums, science centers, or botanic gardens by presenting your Bank of America or Merrill Lynch debit/credit card. The traveling postcard US-2437271 to Massachusetts shows a photo of the exhibition: "Sustainable Style: Fashion and Photography" at the Springs Preserve from an early Museum on Us event on June 2, 2013.

"Sustainable Style" highlights fashion items made out of sustainable or environment-friendly materials. The collection on the card was designed by Elizabeth Calderon, an Mexican designer based in Las Vegas since 1996, using renewable fiber, recycled polyester and organic cotton.

According to the event web site: "Sustainable fashion is part of the growing design trend of sustainability, the goal being to create a system that can be supported indefinitely. Fashion designers are now re-introducing eco-conscious methods at the source through the use of environmentally friendly materials and socially responsible methods of production."

Organized in association with Fashion for a Cause, the exhibition ran from March 22 to June 16, 2013.

Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas

Postcard US-2260954 to Finland shows the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. The 1982 Museum opened on October 28, 2011 at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, Nevada after it moved from its previous location in Lorenzi Park.

The museum's permanent exhibits include the development of Las Vegas and the natural history of the area. Many interactive exhibits explain how geology shaped the Great Basin and Nevada; how the early flora and fauna survived and evolved; what Native Americans, pioneers, early settlers, miners, railroaders, ranchers and entrepreneurs had contributed to this area. There are some unique artifacts from the Hoover Dam constructions, the atomic testing era and the different stages of Las Vegas as the resort capital of the world.

"Flores Familiares" is the current exhibit that highlights the Mexican heritage embroidery exhibit by Nevada Arts Council. 

The museum is open from 10 am to 6 pm, Thursday to Monday. It is currently participating in the Museums on US program sponsored by Bank of America that offers free admission to the Bank of America or Merrill Lynch credit/debt card holders on the first full weekend of every month. The free admission dates are September 7th and 8th, October 5th and 6th, November 2nd and 3rd, December 7th and 8th in 2013.

It is one of six Nevada State Museums operated by the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs. The other five museums are: East Ely Railroad Depot; Lost City Museum, Overton; Nevada Historical Society, Reno; Nevada State Museum, Carson City; Nevada State Railroad Museum, Carson City; Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City.

Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Postcard US-2333998 to Ukraine shows an aerial photo of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, taken from a Jetblue plane on approach to Portland, Maine on September 7, 2010. It was the first leg of my All-You-Can-Jet (AYCJ) trip from New Orleans, LA to Portland, ME with a transfer at JFK airport, NY.

Cape Elizabeth is a wealthy town in Southern Maine, with a population of 9015 as of the 2010 census, where the historical Portland Head Light is located. Visible on the lower-left center on the card, the lighthouse is predominant at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor.Built from 1787 to 1791, it is the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine. In 1872, an artillery base was built around the lighthouse to guard the entrance to the harbor. It was named Fort Williams in 1899 and remained active until 1962. It then became Fort Williams Park maintained by the town. The Park includes Portland Head Light and the former lighthouse keepers' house that currently serves as a maritime museum museum, remains of the military fort, the ruins of Goddard Mansion, and recreation facilities such as tennis and baseball courts. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 24, 1973.

The United States Postal Service issued a Portland Head Light Forever Stamp as part of the New England Coastal Lighthouses series on July 13, 2013.