Dry Tortugas National Park | USA

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Halfway between Florida and Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico lies the remote Dry Tortugas National Park. The 100-square mile park is mostly open water with seven small islands. Spanish explorer Ponce de León gave the Dry Tortugas their name on his first visit in 1513. 

Fort Jefferson is located on Garden Key, the second largest island in the Dry Tortugas. Construction of the fort started in 1846 but was never completed. For some time the fort served as a prison.  

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Morning Glory Pool | USA

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Morning Glory Pool is located in Yellowstone National Park. The pool was named in the 1880s for its remarkable likeness to its namesake flower. The pool’s blue color is the result of heat-seeking bacteria. 

However, this beautiful pool has fallen victim to vandalism. People have thrown literally tons of coins, trash, rocks, and logs into the pool. Much of the debris subsequently became embedded in the sides and vent of the spring, affecting water circulation. As a result, other microorganisms have infiltrated the pool, changing its delicate ecosystem and coloring. Today, orange and yellow rings encroach on the blue waters.

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Jackson Hole | USA

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Jackson Hole is a valley between the Teton Mountain Range and the Gros Ventre Range in Wyoming, USA. Viewed from Jackson Hole valley looking west, the high peaks of the Teton Range rise more than 2,135 meters above the valley floor. What a breathtaking view!

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Goat Island Lighthouse | USA

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Goat Island Light, built in 1833, is a lighthouse located off Cape Porpoise in southern Maine. Secret service agents protecting President George H.W. Bush found it a convenient spot to watch over the Bush compound at Walker's Point. 

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Sunset over San Juan Islands | USA

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The San Juan Islands are an archipelago between the North coast of Washington and Vancouver Island (Canada). At mean high tide, there are over 400 islands and rocks in the archipelago, 128 of which are named.

The Islands are an important tourist destination. Sea kayaking and orca whale-watching are two of the primary attractions.

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Tillamook Rock Lighthouse | USA

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Tillamook Rock Lighthouse is a deactivated lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, situated on less than an acre of basalt rock in the Pacific Ocean. Construction started in 1890.

“Sea conditions necessitating the construction of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse were notoriously brutal – so brutal, in fact, that no local workers could be found to participate in the project, as they believed leveling-off a small rock located a mile off-shore was obviously a foolhardy idea.” 

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Sunrise over Wizard Island | USA

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Wizard Island was created after a violent eruption of Mount Mazama, a large stratovolcano, approximately 7,700 years ago. The top of the island rises about 230 m above the surface of the lake.

The island is part of Crater Lake National Park, a United States National Park located in southern Oregon.

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Eldred Rock Lighthouse | Alaska USA

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Eldred Rock Lighthouse is the oldest original lighthouse in Alaska. First lit on June 1, 1906 and one of the remotest lighthouses in North America, the Eldred Rock Lighthouse was built after some disastrous shipwrecks. Especially during the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, when the Lynn Canal was full of steamships bringing miners to the Yukon.

Stamp

75th anniversary forever stamp.  For 75 years, Batman has protected Gotham City from the forces of evil. Since his debut, he has become one of the most iconic super heroes in history.

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Baranof Island, Alaska | USA

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Baranof Island is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in Alaska. The island was named after Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, the first governor of Russian America. Baranov Island was the center of Russian activity in North America during the period from 1804–1867.

Located on Baranof Island, Sitka was once the capital of Russian America and the fur-trading center of Alaska. Russian America was the name of the Russian colonial possessions in the Americas. In 1867 Russia sold its last remaining possessions to the United States. 

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Alcatraz Island | USA

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Alcatraz Island is located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.5 miles offshore from San Francisco. From 1934 until 1963, Alcatraz was America's premier maximum-security prison and housed some of the country’s most difficult and dangerous felons. 

No inmate ever successfully escaped The Rock, as the prison was nicknamed, although more than a dozen known attempts were made over the years.

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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse | USA

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Look very carefully at this postcard and you will see Cape Hatteras Light. The tallest lighthouse in North America.

This lighthouse is located on Hatteras Island off the North Carolina coast. Hatteras Island is a barrier island: a long, narrow, offshore deposits of sand or sediment that run parallel to the coastline.

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Mesa Verde Cliff Palace | USA

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Mesa Verde National Park contains more than 4000 known archeological sites. Mesa Verde, meaning ‘green table’ is a remarkably well-preserved prehistoric settlement landscape of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, which lasted for almost nine hundred years from c. 450 to 1300. 

The Mesa Verde Cliff Palace is the largest and most famous cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park. It has over 150 individual rooms and more than 20 rooms for religious rituals. All made of sandstone, wooden beams and mortar.

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Jefferson's Little Mountain | USA

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Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), the third President of the United States (from 1801–1809).

Monticello together with nearby University of Virginia is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

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Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara Coast | USA

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The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California USA.

The archipelago comprises eight islands in total, divided in the Northern and the Southern Channel Islands. The Northern Islands consist of Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa while San Clemente, San Nicolas, Santa Barbara and Santa Catalina make up the Southern Islands.

 

I couldn’t figure out which island is shown on the postcard.

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The bird stamp is part of set of 10 stamps about North American Songbirds. The painted bunting is a species of bird in the Cardinal family that is native to North America.

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Nubble Lighthouse | USA

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Cape Neddick Lighthouse is a lighthouse in the state of Main. The lighthouse is located atop of a large rock island (Nubble Island) about 90 meters off shore.

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Ocracoke Island and Lighthouse | USA

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The Outer Banks is a 200-mile long string of narrow barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina and a small portion of Virginia. Barrier islands are long, narrow, offshore deposits of sand or sediment that run parallel to the coastline. 

One of the barrier islands of the southernmost Outer Banks, is Ocracoke Island. The lighthouse dates back to 1823 and still functions today.

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Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico | USA

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Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest.

The Pueblo people were Native American people in the Southwestern States. At the time of Spanish encounter in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "towns".

Pueblo Bonito, Spanish for beautiful town, is  the largest and best-known of Chaco’s great houses. Occupied from 900 to about 1200. Built in stages and in its final form contained almost 600 rooms!

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Unalaska Island, Alaska

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Unalaska Island is one of the Aleutian Islands, a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones. Most of this archipelago belongs to Alaska (USA).

The island chain is situated between the Pacific Ocean to the south and the Bering Sea to the north. Dutch Harbor, well known for its king crab fishery, is located on nearby Amaknak Island.

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Isle of Palms South Carolina

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The Isle of Palms is a 7-mile long and 1 mile wide Atlantic barrier island. Barrier islands are found on coastlines all over the world, but are most noticeable along the eastern coast of North America. Barrier islands are long, narrow, offshore deposits of sand or sediments that parallel the coast line. 

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Two USA Forever stamps: cycling.

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Ancient Maya ruins in Belize part two: Altun Ha

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In about one week I received two cards picturing Maya ruins in Belize. Both cards I didn’t expect to receive, sent by different persons. This one pictures Altun Ha, the ruins of an ancient Maya city.

 

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Actually  this postcard was sent from the USA. The label reads “US postage paid Barstow, MD”.

According to Wikipedia, Barstow in Maryland is a very small ‘community’ with no residential structures. No one resides in Barstow, MD and the only building in Barstow is the Post Office. 

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