Welcome to Travel Journaling: Antarctica Entry 14 November

 This entry is the last full day on the ship and in Antarctica. 

14 November, 2025

National Geographic Explorer

14:47

We are about to go to the debriefing for how to disembark the ship. C.C. and I have mostly packed and our bags are the correct weights.

This morning the water was choppy, but nothing like going through the Drake Passage. C.C. and I rolled out of bed at 7:30 to the announcement that we were entering Neptune's Bellows. Humpback whales led us into Whaler's Bay. C.C. saw them. I did not.

Entering Whaler's Bay.

C.C. and I were in the second group to go out, so we listened to the ship historian's presentation on whaling in the southern oceans. He started with a brief history of whaling in general before going into detail on the southern hemisphere. 

The remains of a whaling station and processing plant.

16:08

Well now everyone is worried about their luggage. The rental gear has to come with us. C.C. had a plan and stuffed it in her bag. She is still underweight.

Our group went out to Whaler's Bay first in the second group. Whaler's Bay is on Deception Island and has an old whaler's station on it. The ruins are eerie looking and whale bones litter the rocky beach. The beaches are full of black rocks with dead krill. Only a few penguins popped up to join us.

The beach with dead krill boiled pink.

An ornery fur seal had found a spot next to an old rusted piece of equipment. The had to put cones out so we could keep our distance from him. 

He was not happy to have people around while he napped.

Chinstrap penguins have a rookery on the outside of the island, but gentoo were walking on the beach we were at. It was an incredible hike up to an overlook with a huge drop into the ocean. Incredible in that my calves got an amazing work out. I went slow and steady.

I nearly fell in due to bad footing.

I did see a dead seal on the island. It was sad.

Tons of birds flew around, though, and they looked cool in the wind. I got tripped up by a false penguin*.

This is not a penguin.

We are now signing our lives away to participate in the polar plunge. We get in our bathing suits and jump into the ocean. C.C. and I are getting ready to do it. We're just waiting for the announcement to go down to base camp. 

17:10

K and El confirmed we likely saw a minke whale last night. That's four whale species, five seal species, and three penguin species. (Listed below.)

• Whales
• Humpback
• Orca
• Fin
• Minke
• Seals
• Southern sealion
• Weddell seal
• Leopard seal
• Crab seal
• Fur seal
• Penguins
• Chinstrap
• Gentoo
• Adelie

22:02

The worst kept secret on the ship is the polar plunge. Both C.C. and I did it. S was dancing to an 80s music playlist while everyone lined up to jump. A bunch of us started signing along with "We Didn't Start the Fire". 

C.C. jumped before me. Her pictures are really funny. The did not attach anything to us. We jumped from a zodiac and had to swim to a platform. I felt like I was underwater forever, but really it was only a few seconds. Everyone who took the plunge, was given a patch, a cup of hot thickened tea, and a shot of vodka (I skipped the vodka). 

When I went to dry off, C.C. noticed my knee was bleeding. Since the doctor was outside on the zodiac, the nurse looked at the cut and bandaged it up. I was told to apply a new bandage after I showered. Da also scrapped his knee on the platform. I guess we both left a bit of ourself on the 7th continent.

I went up to the sauna to warm up a bit more. There were quite a few people in there as well. A quick shower later and we were all in the lounge for the recap and Captain's farewell speech. All of the crew were present and we learned the history of the ship.

I tried a zero-proof mocktail at the cocktail hour - a maple rum old fashion. It was pretty good if a little sweet.

Dinner was a buffet of grilled meats - Argentinian style. I tried black pudding and liked it. Dessert had a little too much alcohol in it for me (C.C. and El made some really funny faces when they tried it), so they gave me a non-alcoholic version. 

After dinner, we went back to the lounge for the trip recap with submitted photos in a 13 minute slide show. It will be sent to us after the trip. I stepped outside to see the sunset and the group from Washington University was there. Two of the guys were smoking cigars. It reminded me of my dad. Tomorrow will be the second anniversary of his passing.

I know I don't usually post pictures of people, but the captain agreed to pose with Teddy.

Until the next post. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like to hear from me.

*Antarctic Shag (also known as the king cormorant, imperial shag, blue-eyed shag or Antarctic cormorant) - they look like penguins when they don't stretch out or about to fly.

Welcome to Travel Journaling: Antarctica Entry 11 November

More wildlife in this entry - including a humpback whale sighting. In addition to learning about the amazing continent of Antarctica, I sat with a group of people at lunch who told me some interesting LGBTQIA+ history that they lived through. I wrote a little of it in my journal, but may one day do a full blog post on the Virginia Tech Denim protest. 

11 November, 2025 

National Geographic Explorer

21:10

I decided to pamper myself today with a five minute trip to the sauna and a fifty minute massage. I've ended the night with a hot shower. The dryness of the region has made my hair dry really straight - probably the straightest it's ever been.

This morning started with our group going out first on the zodiac to hike around Mikkelson Harbor. We saw Weddell seals and more gentoo penguins. The island also had science equipment from Chile to record the weather and atmospheric changes. There was also an Argentinian Way Station where people can seek shelter in emergencies.  

Weddell seals on the island.

Penguins don't care if you're struggling to get to this Argentinean way station. 

Weather monitoring device the penguins have declared their own.

Gentoo penguin walking out of the remains of an old wooden boat.

S (the Russian naturalist) gave a presentation on ice and it's many kinds. C.C. and I were exhausted and nearly fell asleep during the presentation - which was interesting (C.C.'s new favorite phrase is "how interesting"). 

I thought this one looked like a monster asking for a hug.

We sate with W.A.R, Su, and SN at lunch. I again had a sandwich with salad. We talked a bit about LGBTQIA+ history. Su had gone to Virginia Tech and were part of the Denim Protest. The LGBT+ alliance and allies wore denim in solidarity for gay rights during a week in January 1979. At the time, the school and community retaliated against the students. Virginia Tech recently celebrated the 45th anniversary.

W also mentioned that he went to Brigham Young University. Apparently, anyone caught breaking the university rules were called in for disciplinary action. W said he was called in a handful of times after being caught by the Salt Lake City police with another guy. They hadn't been doing anything, just sitting, but that was enough to get them in trouble.

I took an hour long nap after lunch. It was much needed. 

We entered a bay around 14:00, while I was still sleeping, and whales were spotted. I woke up around 14:30 to the announcement that a leopard seal had been spotted on floating ice. I got a ton of pictures (including the colloquially called "s4!t chicken" - I really need to get it's real name again*). 

No fear of humans whatsoever. 

Leopard seals aren't dangerous to penguins on land, but they are terrifying to see up close.

Nearing our end time in the bay, a woman near me spotted a humpback whale fin. He hovered near the surface for a while before diving a deep dive and I saw the flap of the tail. 

D and I sat together at tea time discussing the photos he got and my identification of different objects in sea ice shapes. We both plan to enter the ice shape photo competition.

C.C. had to skip the lecture on photo journalism with a National Geographic photographer. The woman who hosted spent four years with the Sami people in Finland and Sweden. For her next story, she spent two years interviewing and photographing Native American horse culture in the U.S. and Canada.

I managed to catch the end of the today's recap - though I sadly missed the undersea lecture. C.C. signed us up for the first kayaking group in the morning.

At dinner, we sat with Da and Mk from Cincinnati, Ohio. Da has been wearing a Hadestown hat, which is how I recognized him. Mk is a retired marketing manager and Da is retired from managing health care practices - he's not a doctor, but an admin. We talked quite a bit about my work in health policy.

Until the next one.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like to hear from me.

*I never did relearn or write down the proper name for these birds, but a Google search tells me they are Pink-faced Sheathbill. S4!t chicken is much more memorable.

Welcome to Travel Journaling: Antarctica Entries 4-6 November

Below are the first three entries in my travel journal for my trip to Antarctica. Some things have been edited or rearranged for clarity and names have been changed. I'm not sure how frequently these will go out, but I'll try to post every few days rather than just Sundays for these. 

Additionally, you will likely see a panda in these journal posts. One of my sister's friends left the panda at my house and I had to take it on this trip to give to my sister to take home. The panda's name is Teddy. He is rarely mentioned in my journal.

4 November, 2025

Atlanta, GA

Made it to our aunt and uncle's house. We had a veggie pizza for dinner. The government is still shut down, but TSA wasn't bad in D.C. Hopefully, TSA will be okay tomorrow too. 

Before we got to our aunt and uncle's house, I spotted an animal on the side of the road that looked like a cat, but was the size of a fox. I'm pretty sure it was a young bobcat. My first time seeing one in the "wild". 

5 November, 2025

Atlanta, GA

We are still at our aunt and uncle's house. I overpacked and am leaving some things here. I will also borrow a bigger suitcase. I'll come back in January to retrieve everything. I should have only packed one of my regular bags and backpack, but no - I didn't. 

We are just going to chill here today instead of going out. I'm nervous as to how my Spanish will be. 

6 November, 2025

Buenos Aires, Argentina

InterContinental

12:19

We arrived early along with many other international flights. Getting through customs took about an hour. It led into a large Duty Free store before we retrieved our bags. Once we got through everything, C.C. found a Starbucks right away. We've been mostly relying on my Spanish - which is just okay. 

The flight into Buenos Aires was fine. C.C. got me a window seat in Premium at the very front of the section. I had tons of leg room. I was able to sleep about 5 hours and watched Casablanca and Fantastic Mr. Fox. My remote didn't work, but luckily I had a touch screen media player. I had to take off my seat belt and lean forward to use it, but it worked.

Teddy got to fly DeltaOne

My first impression of Argentina was that it reminded me a little of Florida. There are palm trees and it's flat. We saw a lot of horses on the way into the city. The InterContinental is very nice. We are on the 15th floor with access to the Club. C.C. upgraded us. 

One last note, C.C.'s friend, B, left her panda at my house when she was there two weeks ago. The panda, named Teddy, is our mascot. We've been taking pictures with him everywhere...the DeltaOne Lounge, on the plane, at our aunt and uncle's house, and with our complimentary fancy chocolates in our hotel room. He'll have his own story to tell by the end of this trip. 

Teddy and the fancy chocolates.

20:52

It cooled off. 

C.C. is fretting about our luggage which is causing me to fret, too. Oh, well, we can't go back in time. I will speak with our tour manager tomorrow.

We mostly stayed at the hotel, though I did venture out for a couple of walks. I enjoyed the pastries and drinks in the Club Lounge. The hotel gave us the fancy chocolates and a lot of water. I spoke with one of the doormen who gave me us a list of local restaurants to try. We chose D'oro and I made a reservation at 19:00. The doorman let me practice my Spanish for a bit.

At 17:00, I went for a walk to see The Casa Rosada and The Plaza de Mayo. I took a slight detour (i.e. I got a little lost) and walked by a lovely colonial church, Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Rosario Convento de Santo Domingo. I thought The Catedral Metropolitana and The Museo Histórico Nacional del Cabildo y la Revolución de Mayo were beautiful buildings. I also took a few pictures of the blooming trees with pretty blue flowers. I've no idea what they're called, but they are eye catching. The walk from the plaza to the hotel was about 10 minutes. 

The Casa Rosada

D'oro was a good choice for dinner. We started with two types of bruschetta, the first was with anchovies and the second was with salmon. I had pesto gnocchi and C.C. had saltimbocca with mushrooms. We ended up having a fantastic panna cotta with berries for dessert. It was a nice Argentinian Italian restaurant. 

I feel that the aesthetic of Buenos Aires is a mix of colonial, 1950s brutalism, and modern. Outside our hotel room window is a large church. There is some street art, but I didn't take many pictures. People also dry their clothes on lines on the roofs of buildings. C.C. and I agree that we will have to return one day. 

These trees were in bloom all over the city.

We have to get up early tomorrow for our next flight. I'm excited to see the bottom of the world.

Until the next post. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like to hear from me.

Welcome to Journaling

Recently, I started taking a MasterClass class on short story writing and one piece of advice was to keep a journal. I really like this idea. Journaling has helped me to privately express myself for years, while also gushing about the different kinds of food I enjoy while traveling. Occasionally I get a kick out of going back and reading these journals.

I have kept a journal on and off since I was a child. When I was in elementary school, my interest in journaling came about because of the Dear America and My America books which were written as a series of diary or journal entries by kids living during a particularly important part of American history. Eventually I started working my way through the Royal Diaries collections (which is where I learned about Lady of Ch’iao Kuo also known as Lady Red Bird and the amazing Angolan princess Nzingha).

As a little kid, I tried to emulate the way the dairies were set up - with recorded conversations, notes from newspapers and letters, and more details than a normal journal writer really records. Needless to say, trying to copy this style was exhausting.

Then I went to Japan.

Prior to that trip I was given this really cool journal to write about my time while traveling. My aunt and father also told me about how my grandmother always kept a travel journal and kept  one on what happened every day. Wanting to be like my grandmother, I made my first attempt at keeping a travel journal.

This turned into a bit of a chore when my aunt realized my penmanship was awful and made me sit at the dining table every opening, in Japan, to practice my writing. It wasn’t the most fun activity for an 11 year old. Years later, while reading one of my grandmother’s journals, I discovered that my aunt also had bad penmanship at my age (it was her only “bad” grade in that report card) and I felt a little better about myself.

However, that first travel journal got me into the habit of keeping a journal anytime I feel like I go on an adventure. Last year, before I went on my second trip to Japan, I reread the journal and noticed two things. One, I really liked sparkly gel pens. Two, I was seriously obsessed with the food. I grew out of the first habit and haven’t lost my love of the second habit at all. Every travel journal I keep has a lengthy passage everyday about what I ate that day.

My college journal had been given to my by one of my aunts as a graduation gift. My roommate could often find me recording my thoughts every night before going to bed and it became a major part of my nightly sleep prep ritual.

Compare this to my high school journal which is filled with stories, bad poetry, some even worse drawings, and the occasional spell (clearly I knew I was a witch in high school). Honestly going through that journal is painful and some days I wish I would burn it off the face of the world, but I can’t seem to let it go.

My journal keeping habits since graduating college has varied greatly and I could go years before writing down my thoughts again. However, given the recent pandemic and quarantine, I’ve found myself writing in my journal more and more. It helps with my anxiety about COVID-19 and social distancing. It allows me to organize my thoughts around events and even record some of my weirder dreams (and boy do I have some weird dreams).

Keeping a journal might be a good idea for some people during these trying times. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I once kept an agenda beside my bed to simply write my general mood for the day. A simple spiral notebook works well or even keeping a digital journal in the notes section on your phone.

If you have kids, helping them to start a journal might help them with their writing skills and allow them a bit of privacy to express themselves while we’re all living out of each other’s pockets (just don’t read your kid’s journal - it’s a deep violation of trust - unless invited to).

In some ways this blog post is like a journal. It’s a place where I write down my thoughts and give my opinion and record what’s going on in the world. I just know that anyone on the internet can read it.

If you’re looking for something to help you through these times, try journaling. I can’t say if it’s for everyone, but I do know it’s helped me. And sometimes I laugh at what my younger self thought was important.

If you enjoyed this post, or it really pissed you off, please like share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Adventure Part 1: I Can't Relive the Past

Happy Easter everyone. I spent the day doing some chores and trying to get back into my usual sleep schedule. I got off of a 15 hour flight just before midnight last night and somehow managed to catch the last train home. Though taking the Vomit Comet (as the last train around these parts is occasionally referred to as) wasn't really how I wanted to end my holiday, it was at least entertaining to listen to the drunk people at 2:00 in the morning.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how I was taking a break from social media. Well I lasted exactly as long as I wanted to (a week and a half), just long enough for me to take a trip to Japan and Hong Kong.

If there is one point in my life I wish I could relive, it was my trip to Japan when I was 11 years old. I spent six weeks with my aunt and uncle and it was definitely I major turning point in my life. It was my first major trip overseas and without my parents. There were a lot of good times and of course some drama (when isn't there when with family).

It took me nearly two decades later to return to Japan. A lot had changed, though riding a bike around the small city my uncle lives in brought back a lot of memories.

I remember bits and pieces from my first trip and this second trip was great, but it was very different from the first. It was just me and my uncle this time and he packed in a lot of trips all over the area. I didn't make it to Tokyo, but got to visit Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Nishinomiya, and Hiroshima again. I saw places I remember going to the first time, but most where new locations.

The Osaka aquarium is really cool and has two whale sharks

Kyoto is still one of my favorite cities and Osaka is probably one of the coolest places I've ever been. Part of me wishes I could have spent more time exploring Japan, but I don't have the same amount of free time I did as a kid. Work takes a priority.

One thing I've gotten better at since I was an 11 year old is travel journalling. My trip to Japan was the first time that I kept a travel journal. My grandmother kept one every time she traveled and I wanted to do the same. At first I didn't understand what that meant and my aunt thought my handwriting was awful. So every day my aunt would have me sit at the kitchen table practicing my handwriting and then every few days (when we were out and about) she would have me write in my journal.

Every trip since, I've kept a journal when I travel. Some of my journals have multiple trips recorded. My current journal is brand new (a gift from a Secret Snow Flake exchange) and now filled with the tales of my latest trip.

I also took around 500 photos.

I am not ashamed.

This trip I was in Japan in mid-April, just in time for the end of the sakura (cherry blossom) season. Everywhere I looked there were beautiful pink flowers. I went river rapid ride on traditional-style boats in Kyoto and I was able to see a whole mountain side of the blossoms. It looked like a water color painting.

And since it was cherry blossom season I was able to try sakura mochi. Mochi in Japan is very different than what I can get in America. Mochi is traditionally sweet rice smashed into a smooth bun and stuffed with a sweet paste (usually red bean). Sakura mochi is made from the cherry blossoms, dyeing the mochi pink and wrapped in a leaf soaked in salt water.

You can only get these delicious treats in April, while the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

Japanese food is amazing. It's not like Japanese food you get in America (a lot less salt for one thing). There are mostly mild umami flavors with lots of noodles, fish, and rice. Bento boxes are by far the best way to have lunch and street food in general is amazing.

My uncle some how gets me to try all the different food available, even when I'm a little nervous about what I'm eating. For example, I typically don't like octopus (it's a texture thing - not to mention the suction cups *shivers*), but I tried takoyaki or grilled octopus balls and loved them. They're a specialty in Osaka and I totally recommend trying them.

If you take the boat ride in Kyoto you can try grilled squid cooked right on the side of your boat.

Sushi is also a little different in Japan. Sure you have the usual tuna and shrimp, but there are some that I didn't recognize. By far the oddest was corn sushi. I tried it. I don't have to try it again.

I might not be able to relive the trip I took when I was 11, but I can keep traveling and revisiting the places I've been before. Everything and everyone is always changing. Japan 20 years ago is not the Japan of today and 11 year old me is certainly not the me of today.

And even if the toilets in Japan are super fancy (especially at the train stations - and so clean), there are still a few places where it's just a hole in the ground that you have to squat over.

There will be more about adventures next week. Until then!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Keeping A Journal

Last week, I wrote about "being a writer". So this week I might as well follow up with another post about writing. It makes sense in my version of logic.

I've kept a journal in and off since as far back as I can remember. I think I received my first journal in  1st or 2nd grade. There were very few entries and the handwriting is pretty much impossible to read. It wasn't until I went to Japan that I really started taking the art of keeping a journal seriously.

Before my trip to Japan, I was presented with a lovely journal that I was told to use to record my trip. This was before the age of travel blogs (the Internet was just becoming a household utility) and even if they had been known, I doubt young me would have been allowed to have one (especially with my terrible spelling and grammar). Initially I didn't write all that much. However my aunt felt that this would be an excellent opportunity to practice good penmanship and insisted that I write in it as often as possible.

She also had me do many penmanship exercises on the days we didn't have any outings, but I digress.

For six weeks, I wrote about my adventures in Japan. I am so glad I did. I admit, I do cringe a little when I reread my writing style from back then, but there are so many little things that I would have forgotten without that journal. It's been a long time since that trip, but it was my first taste of international travel.

My aunt also told me how my grandmother (her mother), kept journals during all their trips when she was alive. My grandmother had died when I was very young and I wanted to be like her in the stories everyone told me. I made an effort to write as much as young me could with my limited attention span.

There were many more travel journals. Some only have a few entries in them, others have multiple trips and a highlight of my likes and dislikes. I even have a journal that as a school assignment for my 8th grade English teacher after my parents pulled me out of school for a trip. Its fun seeing how much my writing has changed since that first trip.

It was only recently that I was able to read my grandmother's journals. They are very interesting and maybe someday I'll have a version of them written up. My grandfather did a lot of international work and he brought the family with him (my dad has his own version of many of the stories I read). My grandmother's journals give a unique insight to that time in history as well as many different cultures that are rarely covered in US history text books.

In highschool, I had a journal that wasn't really a journal. I didn't write about my day to day activities not did I make an effort to document anything of extreme importance. I actually used it to write poems, draw silly pictures, and short stories. It's a bit bizarre to go back and look at that one. The inner workings of a high schooler are a bit like navigating reading a Lewis Carroll novel (see what I did there?).

My college journal was a lot different. There aren't any poems (well maybe one or two), fewer drawings, and there's a lot more reflection in what I was doing at the time I was writing. It's both a log of events and a place where I vented all my emotions. It was therapeutic and what I needed. Heaven help me if I had tried blogging in college (actually I did, but that's not important).

That's partially why I really like keeping a journal (in addition to a blog). It's where I put my more personal writings that certainly don't belong on the Internet. I'm not very good at keeping up with the one I have now, but it serves it's purpose when I need it to. That's what is important.

As I've written, this blog is more or less a log of me trying to navigate through the so called "adult world". My journal is me trying to make sense of that world. I might flip through it at times to see how much I've progressed (or my lack of). I recommend keeping a journal. Sometimes writing everything down helps. It everything out onto paper so that the mind can organize it. Having a travel journal is also fun and I can go back to remind myself of what I did on a trip.

A journal doesn't need to be fancy. A composition notebook works just as nicely as a fancy leather bound book from a fancy store. A blog is good too, but remember this is the Internet. People don't have to be nice and anyone can find you.

A journal can be a great friend...unless it's possessed by young Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle Jr. Then you might want to stab it with a baselisk's fang.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Now I'm off to find a baselisk's fang!