If you’ve been following our adventures since the first around-the-world trip in 2018 and 2019, then you’ve seen the series of postcards to our friend, Wanda. It’s time we introduce you to this special person!

Michael is a coin collector who enjoys searching through rolls of nickels to find ones worth more than their face value. To do this, he buys boxes of nickels from the neighborhood branch of one of our banks. He’s developed a relationship with the people who work there, and when he was ordering foreign currency from them before one of our international trips, one of the tellers mentioned that she collects postcards.

Wanda said that her nephew was in the military and had been sending them to her from overseas, but he was back in the States and she’d missed getting them in the mail.

When he heard this, Michael asked for her address and said we’d love to send her some from our travels. We’re pretty sure she had no idea what she was in for at the time!

While not all of them have survived the world’s postal processes, we have sent Wanda more than 100 postcards from far-flung places on every continent — including Antarctica.

Our favorite postcard may still be the one we sent to Wanda from Japan in 2019. We found a delightful workshop where we learned to paint traditional patterns from Japanese kimono, so this card was a lovely memory on multiple levels.

As we continue our fourth circumnavigation of the globe, we’ll send Wanda more postcards whenever we can.

Do you collect postcards? What’s the best one you’ve ever sent or received? Leave a comment and tell us about it!