We visited Antarctica in two ways. One was to climb into Zodiacs and putter around on the water, taking in the landscapes, scanning for animals, gazing at the shore. Or we rode the Zodiacs to nearby landing spots, where we stepped out onto the beach and spent two or three hours hiking. Preparing for either was a bit of a project.

Getting dressed is NEVER this complicated at home. For our Antarctic excursions, I generally wore three or four pieces of thermal underwear (a pair of long johns and two or three tops). Over that I donned a wool sweater and polar fleece pants, followed by a down jacket, and then a waterproof parka and rain pants. Tall rubber boots went on over my socks. (I preferred a liner and two pairs.) Gloves and scarves and headgear and a life jacket were the finishing touches.

Over the three days we were there, we went through this drill six times, but only once, on our very first morning, did we stand on the actual continent.

For every other shore visit, we disembarked on one island or another just off the coast.

Cuverville Island was filled with a huge population of Gentoo penguins.

Another outing took us to Deception Island, a rocky rim that’s the caldera of an active volcano.

We left Deception Island through a scenic passage point called Neptune’s Bellows.

Our hours cruising around in the Zodiacs gave us plenty of splendid views of the mainland.

On our sunniest afternoon, we putted amidst the most glorious ice I’ll ever see.