I started this blog for two main reasons. First, because I knew that I wanted a place to write in detail about this trip that’s so unlike any other I’ve ever taken. And second, because I wanted to have it up as a resource for future travelers to Antarctica who may do exactly what I did when we started planning this trip—I immediately started reading everything I could find about other people’s trips.

So here are the details of the trip we took.

Tour company: Quark Expeditions
Trip: Crossing the Circle
Ship: Sea Adventurer
Dates: February 8-20, 2015

Here’s the route our expedition took.

I am a book editor and photographer. You can find more of my photos at karenjacot.com, or you can check out my daily photoblog, Curious Lyle, where I post a photo a day of my son. (He’s 8 years old, and every single day of his life is documented here.)

I traveled with my husband, Jeff, who is a professor at Rice University doing pediatric heart research, and my uncle, Allen, who is a traveler and writer and who has been almost everywhere.