About Us

We’re Steve and Ann Teget and we blog about extraordinary travel for everyday people. Currently, we split our time between a small, rural town in southeast Nebraska and another one in Oklahoma. We love The Great Plains, but we also love to see new places and experience new things. So we travel. We write authentic stories about the places we’ve been and the experiences we’ve shared in hopes of influencing others to just go places!

For a long time, we both focused on our careers and spent more than two decades in corporate America and public education. Like many others, we ran the rat race year after year and longed for the days when we could take a real vacation without having to worry about checking our emails or answering phone calls. Then, enough was enough.  Ann stopped working in 2014 when she encountered some health issues and after months of consideration and prayer, Steve quit his job as a middle school principal in 2017 so we could enjoy more time together and explore some other opportunities.

For now, we’re taking some time to focus on health, family, ministry, travel, blogging, and whatever else makes us smile. We’re glad you’re here and hope you’ll come along on our journey.

You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Oh, and don’t forget to send us a postcard at Postcard Jar, P.O. Box 334, Crete, NE  68333. We’d love to see where you’ve been.

More Fun Facts

Go Big Red!

We absolutely love Nebraska Cornhusker football and anxiously count the days until the next kickoff when we can eat Runzas and yell “Go Big Red.” Don’t know what Runza is? It’s worth a trip to Nebraska to find out.

Mom and daughter

Ann had a daughter when she was 24 and raised her as a single parent until she met Steve and they were married in 2011.

Traveling Legacy

Our daughter, Meghan, graduated from the University of Nebraska – Omaha with a degree in Spanish and is now pursuing her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She also loves to travel and even wrote a guest post for us called, “What I learned traveling with my mom.”

Magic Man

Steve is great at card tricks and often entertains random people in airports with his magic.

Worth the wait

Neither of us was married until we were 38 and 42. We dated for a year and had a short engagement. We bought a house, finished the basement and planned a formal wedding in less than two months (and took a two-week vacation during that time, as well).

Either you like bacon, or you're wrong

Steve is a big fan of bacon.

Spick and span

Ann is obsessed with cleaning the kitchen counters.

For the win

Steve was a four-year varsity letterman in fencing at Lawrence University. Ann was a two-time state champion golfer at Crete High School.

FAQs

Q: Why ‘Postcard Jar?’

A. Ann read a home decorating blog post on Young House Love

Ironically, the first postcard we sent home was from the home of our first U.S. President, George Washington. We jotted down highlights from our visit on the postcard, including the view from the rocking chairs on the back porch overlooking the Potomac River and the Maryland shore.about saving postcards from places you visit and displaying them in a glass vase. She loved the idea and from that point on in May of 2011, whenever we traveled together we’d send a postcard back home.

After we got married, Ann bought a big jar and in about six years, we’ve added more than 100 postcards to the jar which adorns a table in the entryway of our home. Our postcard jar is a constant reminder of where we’ve been and the things we’ve experienced together and we couldn’t think of a more fitting name for our blog.

Q: How did you two meet and how long have you been married?

A: To be honest, we’re not sure how we met. We both lived in the small, rural Nebraska town of Crete for more than nine years, but neither of us can remember a specific time or place we actually met. Likely, we became aware of whom the other person was several years ago when Ann came to Crete High School on Thursday mornings to volunteer as a mentor and Steve worked as an administrator in the office there. We exchanged hellos and eventually shared brief conversations. In June of 2010, Ann asked Steve to go to a College World Series game (read more about that here) and the rest is history. We dated for a little more than a year, had a 10-week engagement, and were married Aug. 27, 2011.

Steve and Ann of www.postcardjar.com on their wedding day. (Photo by Aaron Babcock).

Q: Where did you go on your honeymoon?

A:  Steve had a trip to Costa Rica booked about 25 minutes after proposing (read more about the proposal here). Steve had studied Spanish in Costa Rica and been there several times and while he was not particularly concerned about the wedding details (flowers, music, food, etc.). But he was adamant that the honeymoon was spent in the land of Pura Vida and he planned a romantic honeymoon that did not disappoint.

A view of the river running through the Tabacon Hot Springs resort in Costa Rica. (photo by Ann Teget for www.postcardjar.com)

Q. Why the blog?

A. Quite frankly, we needed a creative outlet – one that would feed our need for travel even when our schedules or health don’t allow us to leave our home in rural Nebraska. When we were both working lots of hours, travel was our escape. We’ve been asked by friends for our advice on everything from swimming with dolphins to how to pack for 14 days in Europe and we are always happy to share what we’ve learned. We hope this blog can also serve as a resource for extraordinary travel for everyday people like us (and you).

Q. What can expect to see on this blog?

A. Useful information for regular people (like us) who want to plan extraordinary vacations and experiences. We cover where we’ve been, insights on destinations and attractions, and tips & tricks we’ve learned along the way (like packing an extra outfit in each others’ bags in case one suitcase doesn’t arrive).

Q. Where did you get your interest in travel?

A: Steve – My grandparents were great travelers. Upon his return from WWII, my grandfather declared that he was going to take my grandmother to see the world. And he did. Over the course of about 40 years, they visited more than 80 countries. They went from Mexico to Morocco, from Tibet to Timbuktu. They would come home and tell stories and show pictures of the places they’d been. I so wanted to go along. In high school, I had the opportunity to travel to Argentina as a foreign exchange student. It was my first trip outside the country. Everything was so new. I was hooked.

A: Ann – Unlike Steve, I didn’t travel abroad until I was 36, but I remember great family road trips as a kid to places like the the Grand Canyon, the Black Hills of South Dakota, my grandparents’ retirement home in The Ozarks, and one long cross country trek with six kids and two adults to St. Petersburg, Florida. Leaving the prairie of Southeast Nebraska and seeing the desert, hills, mountains, lakes or beaches was always exhilarating and gave me the bug for travel.

Q. What are your travel blog credentials?

A. We like to travel. We’ve done it a lot. We’ve made some mistakes, and we’ve had some amazing experiences. Ann earned her degree in journalism and was a newspaper writer and photographer early in her career. Steve has degrees in Spanish and anthropology and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction.

Q. Can I send you a postcard?

A. Please do! You can send us a postcard at: Postcard Jar, P.O. Box 334, Crete, NE 68333.

A glimpse into our lives

Music for the soul

Music for the soul

After my appointments today at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Steve and I spent two hours sitting in the lobby of Mayo’s Gonda Building where we listened to Jane Belau play the grand piano for passersby. We’d seen her play before and enjoyed the music, but today was...

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And we’re off!

And we’re off!

After months of dilly dallying around with the idea (slash dream) of a travel blog, we decided to just get it going this weekend. We've got a day to kill in cold and gloomy Rochester, Minnesota,  before I return for the third time since January to the Mayo Clinic....

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