Vancouver Attraction Has Best Postcards

As I mentioned in prior post, Vancouver British Columbia has top-notch postcards. I was only in Vancouver this past trip for a very brief time, but it seemed like every place I stopped at had exceptional postcards.

Case in point, I visited Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. It is one of the only Chinese scholar’s garden outside of China – think rocks, feng shui, and bonzai rather than a western style floral garden.

It was beautiful if smaller than I imagined it would be. The most pleasant surprise, however, was the gift shop at the end that had postcards available in multiple locations totally at least over 40 different postcards. It was the most selection I’ve seen of any cultural site or tourist attraction (including Disney World).

More importantly though, most postcards there are beautiful and unique. Below are my two favourites. They combine imagery of the place with graphic design wonderfully.

The above is a great shot of the garden and scholar’s buildings. I love the border on the bottom, although I have no idea what it says.

Below is a detail from their goldfish pond:

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In Cod We Trust

My brother-in-law went out East awhile ago to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Naturally, I asked that he send me some postcards. Upon his return he proudly exclaimed that he found some awesomely amazing postcards that I’d love. He didn’t have stamps so he asked a friend there to mail them.

I waited with great anticipation for days, until days turned into weeks.  It’s a mystery what happened to the postcards.  It fills me with great sadness to never know the amazingness that was so close and yet never to be.

In lieu of them, here’s a fine specimen from his much earlier maritime travels:

The postcard refers to the moratorium on fishing for cod in Atlantic Canada. It the staple fish of Canada’s fishing industry.

Here’s the back:

Postcard caption:
[Top] “In Cod We Trust(ed). A tribute to the North Altantic fisher, photo circa 1903”
[Bottom] “Proceeds from this postcard support the Cnaadian Marine Heritage Project…”

Postcard message:
“Greetings from the coast EH….. when the weather is nice – this place is beautiful. But do not swim in the Harbour. 25,000 gallons of sewage a day and growing.”

I will continue to wait and hope for those amazing postcards yet to come…

Big Fish Tale

Sadly, you just don’t see many tall-tale postcards any more. I love them, but they seemed to have reached their peak in the 1950 and 1960s – such as this treasure from 1968.

It’s from my aunt to my grandparents from Sheguiandah, Ontario. I’d never heard of Sheguiandah (it’s the only postcard I have from there). It’s on Manitoulin Isand in Lake Huron. The tourist website states it is one of the best fishing places – judging from this big fish, I’m not surprised.

Here’s the backside:

Postcard message:
“Hi. This is the fist X caught here. We are staying at a real nice camp just outside Little current, it is called Green Acres. We have showers and hot water – ever nice. Everything but the telepone up on the pole. There is a nice beach here too. The people are really friendly, the rest of the campers are mostly from the States. Well bye for now.”

By the way, 47 years later and Green Acres campground is still in business.

Believe It Or Not, Ripley’s Aquarium Has Good Postcards

This past weekend, my family took me to Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada here in Toronto to celebrate my birthday. It opened about 14 months ago, but we wanted to wait for the notorious crowds to thin out before visiting (they hadn’t).

I also wasn’t in a hurry to go there as I’ve been to aquariums in Monterey, Vancouver, Chicago, Epcot Centre, Maui, and others and thought that they couldn’t do a particularly inspiring job in the small space it has at the foot of the CN Tower.

I also thought it was absurd to have an aquarium in a place that is not on the sea and is not known for its spectacular marine life in our lakes and rivers.

I was wrong on both points.  The aquarium begins by actually making Ontario’s aquatic life quite interesting as well as the rest Canada’s marine life. The aquarium is much larger than it seems on the outside and has some spectacular displays – particularly the long underwater tunnel through shark-infested waters and trippy jellyfish displays. Read the review Hypnotism by sea creatures a serious risk at new Ripley’s aquarium for a full tour.

It all ended with a special treat for me – ample postcards:

Jellyfish illuminated in psychedelic displays

The text accompanying the piranha tanks disappointingly explains they don’t actually eat people

Ripley’s aquarium is the only place in Ontario where you’ll see fish this pretty

They had around 8 different postcards and I got five (from my wife as an awesome birthday gift)! That’s a good amount compared to Canada’s Wonderland which has zero or even Disney World (as I have lamented).

They did break two rules of postcards – on the back side:

First broken rule – if you are charging people for postcards (as these did – they cost $1 each) then the space for the message should be left blank. It’s okay (although not ideal) for give-away postcards to prefill in the message area with boring promo copy (and this is among the worst offenders – who cares if they have “corporate events” and “school groups”). But if I’m paying for the postcard, I get the right to fill in the space myself.

The second broken rule – all the postcards have the exact same back side, even though each back of a postcard should have a unique caption. A caption should identify the front image of the postcard (which would help in the case of fishes that all start to look the same after you’ve looked at millions of them for a few hours) and ideally offer additional interesting information or context.

But as important as postcards are, in the end, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SHARKS! And they delivered in Discovery Channel style:

Egyptian Tourism

I know a lot of people who would love to go to Egypt, but few who actually go due to the series of problems since the 1990s when various deadly attacks on tourists began. The political uncertainty there over the past few years has also hurt their tourism industry.

On February 16, a terrorist exploded a bomb on a tour bus killing three people (see Reuters for further details). I wasn’t aware that terrorist attacks on tourists had recently resumed there until I got this postcard below yesterday:

Sharm El-Sheikh is a beach resort area on the Red Sea (see map). I’d heard that the area is one of the best snorkelling and scuba diving regions. Egypt has many attractions beyond the pyramids, as the reverse side relates:

Postcard message:
“Hello again from Egypt. We’re at an all inclusive resort in Sharm. Yes some Koreans were blown up a couple days ago, but the resort is very relaxing. Went snorkelling yesterday, it’s so amaze balls! Also really enjoying “Turkey’s Got Talent’ week long event.”

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a

My daughter has just started ukulele lessons and naturally that has me thinking of Hawaii.  Here’s a postcard with one of the longest words I’ve ever encountered, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a is Hawaii’s state fish. The fish’s full name has been featured in at least two songs with ukuleles accompaniment (of course): the classic Little Grass Shack  and then one from High School Musical 2).

My daughter loved the fish’s name, so she sent a postcard of it to her cat – when we were in Hawaii.

Here’s the back side:

Postcard caption:
“Hawai’i’s State Fish
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a (Rhinecanthus rectangulus) is also known as a Picasso Triggerfish for the geometric markings on its body.”

Postcard message:
“Hi Bella [our cat]! This is a fish you can eat. I mis you! I love Hawaii. Love.”

Something is Fishy About This one

The following postcard arrived a few days ago from Chicago:

I love jellyfish (except when I got stung by one – that hurt a ton).  At the Monterey aquarium, I found the jellyfish to be mesmerizing in their shape, translucence, and movements. But I don’t remember them being this colourful. I didn’t see any jellyfish like this when I was at Shedd either.  Has the postcard designer digitally enhanced the jelly?

Either way, it makes a great looking postcard, so I’m happy. Here’s the reverse side of the postcard:

Postcard caption:

“Jellies, discover the intriguing ways these pulsing, translucent animals survive – and thrive – in the world’s oceans.”

Postcard message:
“I was amazed by the jellies! So, so cool! Still need to see the stained glass at the pier…”

The stained glass reference is to Chicago’s Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier. I recommended seeing it as it’s one of my favourite (let alone free) Chicago sites.  But then, I never saw the jellyfish like the above when I was there!