Visit to Maryland and the U.S. Postal Museum!

So this winter I went back to Maryland to visit family and I got to go to the U.S. Postal Museum! It was awesome and it was way bigger than I thought it would be! I didn't get to see everything. I definitely want to go back.  I took some photos with my phone while I was there so here they are...

If you can't read the caption it says : Hope Diamond wrapper, November 8, 1958.
 And yes, that means they mailed the Hope Diamond!!!!  I couldn't believe it. This was one of my favorite parts of the museum because I was so surprised.

 beautiful mailboxes. I wish I was a better photographer because this is the kind of thing that if photographed well I would love to frame and put on my walls!

 Hey look! It's kind-of-creepy Owney the Postal Dog!


The next 6 pictures are all from one delicious room of the museum. 
Below is an advertising cover.  You might already know how much I love horses, so I just had to take a photo of this beauty.  (By the way, it's the Year of the Horse!) Such a great motto. "Horse Blankets. You want'em. We've got'em."

 This one is really cool too! Okay so it was ALL cool and I was beside myself the whole time. But you see that on this postcard one of the stamps is cut in half. It used to be the case that if a stamp was of a higher denomination you could cut it in half and use it separately!

 And then there was the case of mail art. Beautiful beautiful mail art. 
I love the "Mail Art is Big in Lomita" postcard. Awesome.

 I also loved the presentation. The addresses were covered with papers that said "You cannot see the addressee." Perfect.

 And finally, leaving the museum, we saw the wonderful stained glass stamp windows.  This was such a great museum. Highly recommended.

I must say though, that the gift shop left a bit to be desired.  I only ended up buying one postcard and some stickers that were half off because they were Christmas-y.  There was quite a bit of stuff available for starting your own stamp collection, but I wish they had fun t-shirts and things like that.  Also, the best postcards at the museum were free for the taking at different exhibits! That was pretty awesome.

And... I will leave you with one more photo.  Since we were back in Maryland we just had to have some seafood.  Oh woe is me, out in Illinois!  I bought some lump crabmeat and Clay made us crabcakes!!! Soooo delicious!