“I should brush up on my Spanish”… leads to the many times in my life I think, “Maybe I’d like to learn to…” or I’m going to study…” or “I’m going to explore…” Just insert one of the following words to complete the sentence: Spanish, French, Chinese, Hebrew, Swahili, the Bible, ancient history, dye wool, bead, Yoga, sewing, tailoring, how to cook Indian food, make silver jewelry, read classic novels. I’m not sure when or if I’ll explore any of the above topics, but it is fun to know that life holds so much interest!

Quick update: we left Ushuaia, Argentina on Thursday evening aboard the National Geographic Explorer and we are headed towards the Antarctic peninsula. We crossed the Drake Passage with their usual rough seas (thank goodness we brought seasickness patches and never got sick!). In the wee hours of this morning we crossed the Antarctic Convergence and are officially in the Antarctic Circle. Weather is brisk, skies are spitting snow, and there is the ever present Antarctic wind. As we approach Antarctica the days are quite long and nights are quite short. For example, the sun rose today at 3:00 AM and will not set until 12:08 AM tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll reach Marguerite Bay and take our first Zodiac ride to shore! FACTOID FOR TODAY: Antarctica is the windiest of the seven continents.