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This trip...

Although this would be a trip to the most remote area, not to mention the most unexplored and uninhabited continent, it wasn't as far south.  Near the end of November, well in to Spring (think Memorial Day in the US), there was still too much snow/ice to even reach Port Lockroy - let alone cross the Antarctic Circle.  (Port Lockroy runs a post office from Nov - Mar where your postcards are stamped with official Antarctica stamp and eventually delivered to you or whoever you mailed them to.  Our ship's mailbox collected (and held) our postcards until the post office opened later in the season.) In comparison to our Southmost point of 64.63 degrees on this expedition, Tromso Norway (69.65 degrees North) and Barrow Alaska (71.29 degrees North) were both well above the Arctic Circle in the North where you'd experience 24 hour days for a couple of months straight during Summers.  The day in Antarctica for us was still fairly long - nearly 20 hours (3:41 am to 10:52 PM) with
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About the expedition...

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The main difference between an expedition vs a cruise is whether you actually step on Antarctica.  If you are on a cruise, you sail by ("cruising") but not get off on Antarctica or any surrounding islands.  If you are on an expedition, you are technically research scientists exploring Antarctica to advance science (or something to that effect.)  You can then land, and even visit any nearby research stations - none were open yet! Cruise ships are the 3-4 thousand passenger monstrosities, whereas expedition vessels have capacities of less than 200.  Ours could accommodate 72 "polar explorers" as they called us, all cabins with windows (no balconies.)  The ship is not an ice breaker, but with double hull and can cut through some ice sheets, like ours did. Titanic?  Nope.  These double hulled ships can cut through some ice sheets. Weather controls the tourist season in Antarctica - usually Nov - Mar (Summer months.)  The number of ships and their itinerar
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Day by Day

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Thu, Nov 16 2017 - Normally, I like my first flight out to be out of the country.  Though that is not always possible based on the destination, it almost always means flying out of SFO, which is 50 miles West from my house.  It normally takes a couple of hours to get there with UBER and BART train logistics. - The best round trip fare to Ushuaia (USH) at the Southern tip of Argentina was $1150 from SFO, but $300 cheaper from SMF (Sacramento.)  SMF is a bit farther away (77 miles) - best parking option is the long term parking ($10/day) adjacent to the runways. - Both the flight out and return flight were around mid-day (1 PM) and therefore no traffic was expected. - The weather forecast was rain in the morning, but clearing by our flight time - and it sure did.  SMF airport, like Oakland (OAK), is small and therefore easy to get in and out of.  For a change, we had one check-in bag which Delta was able to track and text me every time it was loaded on my flight.  The main cause of c
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