My Favorite Postcards

Hello!  from the Big Orange!
Eau Gallie / Melbourne, Florida, USA

International Postcard Week
6-12 October 2019

This postcard highlights a tacky eyesore "Big Orange" built in 1966 by Adger Smith, a lifelong resident of Eau Gallie.  It was used as a welcome station by the chamber of commerce to dispense orange juice to tourists.  Big Orange has managed to escape all attempts to demolish the gaudy eyesore.  In fact it is so ugly it has become an icon to the sophisticated Melbourne (formerly the city of Eau Gallie) residents.

Love, Harmony

Old Key Lime House

plant me

This handmade paper contains flower seeds.  Plant paper under a light layer of soil in a sunny place.  Water well and keep moist until sprouted.

This unique novelty postcard is postmarked in 2017.

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Old Key Lime House is Florida's oldest waterfront restaurant.  It is located in Lantana, Palm Beach County, Florida.

Legoland Florida, Central Florida's newest theme park, offers over 55 interactive rides, shows, attractions, restaurants, and shopping specifically geared for families with children ages 2 to 12.  A multi-day family destination, Legoland Florida is also home to the all-new Legoland Water Park and the beautiful historic Cypress Gardens.

This postcard is postmarked in 2017 with a horse stamp.
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Found in the Land of Adventure, Coastersaurus is a junior wooden coaster featuring this stunning, life-sized LEGO Triceratops.

This unused dinosaur postcard is from 2015.

King Cobras at Miami Serpentarium
Venom is extracted for the manufacture of serum as a highlight of each tour several times a day.

The sender writes:
Here we are enjoying beautiful Miami.  We don't meet many snakes like this one fortunately.  We are enjoying the shops and streets so much.  I hope to go to the new Seaquarium and see the tropical fish before coming home.
(The Miami Seaquarium in Florida was founded in 1955.)

This postcard is postmarked in 1956.

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Still in operation today, The Miami Serpentarium was established in 1946 as the first-of-it’s kind premier venom production laboratory in the world.

Shown on the postcard is founder Bill Haast.

ICE!
at Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, Florida, features a winter wonderland of ice creations hand carved from two million pounds of ice.

This postcard features Santa and his reindeer with Rudolph in the lead. It is all made with clear and colored ice and is postmarked in 2014. 

Cocoa Beach
Florida

Fun in the sun at the pier in Cocoa Beach.
Photo by Dan McKinley

This is postmarked in 2015 with a Batman stamp.

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Cocoa Beach was the setting for the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, although no episodes were actually filmed there, and star Barbara Eden only made two visits during the show's production — both in 1969, for publicity.

Greetings from sunny
FLORIDA
enjoy our Skunk Ape!

National Postcard Week
May 3 - 9, 2015

Did You Know?
The Myakka Skunk Ape is Florida's Bigfoot?  These hairy creatures stand up to 7 feet tall and can weigh more than 450 pounds.  Skunk Ape sightings are reported throughout Florida but most often in the wilderness of the Everglades.  Evidence suggests that Skunk Apes spend a great deal of time in underground caverns or alligator caves.  Many people believe that methane gas emitted by decaying matter in these low lying areas are what gives the Skunk Ape its unique skunky / rotten egg odor.

This is postcard number 12 in a limited edition of 50 and was created by Michelle Mullins. 

Having a great time at SunFest 2015
From The 2015 Ford Experience Tour.

This is a picture taken at SunFest and turned into a postcard.  Of course any decent Florida postcard would have a large pink flamingo on it!  It is postmarked on May 4th, 2015 with a 'From Me to You' USPS stamp.

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SunFest is a music and art festival held annually in the first week of May in West Palm Beach, Florida. It is the state's largest waterfront music and art festival and attracts more than 275,000 visitors.

Jupiter, Florida

The historic Jupiter lighthouse.
Photo by Martin Gordash

This postcard is postmarked in 2010 with two vintage USA stamps.

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The sender used a Brown Pelican stamp and wrote the following:
Brown Pelicans are permanent residents in Jupiter, and they can be seen around the Marina by the lighthouse.

Souvenir of St. Augustine, Florida

I send you herewith the head of a Gator,
Watch for the mail - it will bring more later.


This city is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America.  St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez of Aviles, Spain who was sent to protect the Spanish Treasure fleets sailing along the coast of Florida.

Two-thirds I am here, in body and soul,
The next is the last and the Gator is whole.

St. Augustine, Florida
A stone fortress was built by the Spanish to protect St. Augustine from English expansion.  Construction of Castillo de San Marcos started in 1672 making it the oldest masonry fortification in the United States.  It stands today as a symbol of Spain's early colonization of our country.

This is the last Card I send you by mail,
The end of the Gator and then end of the "tale."

St. Augustine, Florida
To learn more about this "Tale" and others, visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park.  You can see 23 species of crocodilians, rare white alligators, exotic birds, and mammals.  Wildlife shows every hour 10 am to 5 pm.

All three postcards are printed in 2007 but postmarked in 2013.

Stuart Florida's 75th
Anniversary Commemorative Postcard
1914 - 1989

General merchandise store built in 1900 by George Parks, Sr.
This Stuart landmark which is today's Stuart Feed Store was purchased by the City of Stuart in 1987.

Photograph courtesy of Stuart Heritage
Stuart Mainstreet.
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Stuart Heritage Museum
Stuart, Florida

This unused postcard was bought in 2013.

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The Stuart Heritage Museum at 161 Southwest Flagler Avenue in Stuart, Florida, is a local history museum located in an historic 2-story frame building built in 1900 by George W. Parks. Parks used the first floor of the building for his Geo. W. Parks Grocery and General Merchandise Store and second floor for his home. In 1913, the building became the Stuart Mercantile Company and in the 1960s after a series of uses, it became the Stuart Feed Store. In 1989, the Stuart Feed Store was listed in A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture.

As of now, it is no longer used as a store, it is only the Museum.

Stuart, Florida

Stuart Sailfish Monument 18 feet high
2003 Geoffrey C. Smith Galleries

unused, from 2013
We went into his gallery on my birthday and he very graciously autographed one of his postcards for me as a birthday present.  Be sure to check out his website below!

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From his website:

Geoffrey Camp Smith's earliest memories are those of the outdoor adventures he shared with his father and his two brothers. Geoffrey's first bronze was cast in 1984, opening a new world of artistic possibility. His artistic style continues to evolve. He describes it as "loose", with fingerprints tracing and suggesting feathers and fur on its subjects. A constant challenge to him is to impart the impression of motion or incipient motion to his work. Faithfulness to the spirit of the animal in its natural surroundings is very important. Geoffrey seeks to draw the observer to the animal for what it is, rather than trying to grant the animal human characteristics or expressions to draw one in.
A perfectionist at the foundry, Geoffrey has opted for a traditional chemical patina on his bronze sculptures. All bronzes are cast using the age-old lost wax process, whereby a clay original of his creation is transformed at the foundry into an enduring bronze, of limited issue. He prefers smaller limited editions, proofing each work personally before signing and numbering.

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be sure to check out his website's Gallery
my favorite is a huge octopus statue that has at the end of each tentacle a candle holder!
www.geoffreycsmith.com

you can click on the octopus called 'Illuminate Maria' here.... 
http://www.geoffreycsmith.com/#c1mxx

Have you ever wondered how they make something like this?  Here is a great step by step video of Geoffrey making the sailfish you see in the above postcard ...
Like on all YouTube videos, when the little advertisement comes on at the bottom, click on the X in the right hand corner to turn it off.

 There are some fish around here.

Greetings from Palm City, Florida

postmarked in 1931 with a one cent Franklin stamp

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Palm City, Florida is a beautiful community located just west of Stuart Florida.  Its close proximity to both I-95 and the Florida Turnpike, makes commuting easy. Palm City is just 2 hours southeast of Orlando (Walt Disney Area).

Palm City borders the St Lucie River witch makes for beautiful waterfront communities and many of them also have golf courses.

Palm City residents enjoy an excellent quality of life with good schools and low crime rates.  Here, the golf and tennis are great and the fishing is legendary. (As you can see in the postcard above :)

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Here is a card of the ducks leaving the fountain on their march back to their glass enclosure...
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This is the free card you get at the front dest if you ask if they have any postcards.....

Finally Found a Place I Could Afford
Florida

Place to afford
Before or after taxes?

Photo by Rindy Nyberg

This last one was postmarked in 2009 with a 42 cent 'Take me out to the ball game, baseball' stamp.

Florida Everglades
The Purple Gallinule
Photo by Warren Flagler