Trav·el – The act of traveling; journeying, especially to distant places.

Charles Swift waited patiently, sat forward in his chair and introduced himself.

“I’m Charles Swift. I’m a retired science teacher. I taught for 35 years. I taught in two foreign countries: Iowa and the Dominican Republic.”

He continued this introduction in his calm, raspy voice summarizing his travels around the world. His orange-yellow raincoat swished with his slightest movements.

“As a kid, I collected stamps. I loved them,” Swift said. “That’s the way I traveled when I was a little kid. I got stamps, and I looked them up. I could tell you who the ruler was, what the background was, what country they were from and what continent they were on.”

Because of his stamps, he was a geography nut. He also did extraordinarily well in history because he remembered the age, period and significance of the figure or place on the stamps. Stamps became the travel bug for him, and he was never cured.

He first went abroad as an Eagle Scout at age 16. His next big adventure abroad wasn't until when he was 29 on a scientific expedition to the Amazon Rainforest.

Swift’s bucket list was quickly defined by travel and all the places he wanted to go. His top goal was to visit all seven continents. The idea struck him when he was younger and only continued to grow as he became older.

“I thought as I got older and the world got smaller, maybe I would be able to afford that or circumstances would conspire to make that happen,” he said. “When I became an adult and a teacher, I realized that was a goal I wanted to meet while I was teaching.”

His face lit up as he seemed to imagine the scene.

“A teacher who has stepped foot on all seven continents?” he asked and paused for a moment to let it sink in. “That’s pretty cool.”

Swift spent most of his life in Texas, always teaching and learning. If he wasn’t teaching, he was probably traveling abroad. He worked continuously towards that Antarctica voyage he so desperately wanted to take.

Well, he didn’t make it. Swift is 71 and far from his many years of experience in the classroom.

“I made it to 69 countries and all six continents multiple times,” he explained, “but I didn’t make it to Antarctica. It was money mostly, but you know, family, career and life. The time flew by.”

Swift’s wife kept nudging him to commit to a trip to Antarctica when he first retired. She knew how badly he had wanted to go. He resisted, however, because these were the years that he was supposed to primarily spend with his wife. He had retired, and he wanted to focus on their lives as a retired couple.

His goal was to bring her along on this trip, a trip that would accomplish such a feat in his life.

And then she died, he said. After her death, he kept himself busy with various positions on boards and focusing on his kids and grandchildren. He knew that Holbrook Travel had another Antarctica trip coming up but decided not to focus on it. He said he didn’t allow himself to consider it.

It wasn’t until Lisa Palmese-Graubard, a specialty travel consultant at Holbrook, called Swift and said that they had a client drop out from the cheapest package available going to Antarctica.

Swift had been a client for nearly 25 years now, and Palmese-Graubard knew how badly he had wanted to go. She figured she might as well offer the availability especially given his recent circumstances.

He was in a bind. Swift was vacationing in Colorado for a wedding. It was a Thursday, and he wouldn’t be able to get Holbrook the money until the next Tuesday at the earliest.

However, because of Swift’s extensive history with Holbrook, he might as well have been a part of the Holbrook family. And because of this strong relationship, Holbrook covered the expenses until his money came in. Palmese-Graubard secured his spot on the ship. And so he was in.

The voyage departed from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 9, 2011, and returned on December 21, 2011. The trip took the passengers to the South Shetland Islands, which signifies the first sighting of the continent.

After spotting these islands, the group was able to go ashore and explore. This is also the first opportunity that the passengers were to see the abundant wildlife including Antarctic fur and southern elephant seals and penguins.

Besides the South Shetland Islands, there is the entire Antarctic Peninsula, which counts as the actual continent for Swift. Swift didn’t mind visiting the islands, of course, but he needed to be on that mainland. He needed to hop off the boat and stomp on that land a few times ending his lifelong quest to be on seven continents.

“A group I led in Iceland a few years ago always teases me,” Swift said. “If you remember, the volcano in Iceland gave Europe great difficulties and halted nearly all air transportation for several months.”

“Well, we were up there stomping around at the top not too long before that volcano erupted,” he said laughing. “So the joke is now that I better not stomp too hard in Antarctica, or I may well mess up the Earth’s fresh water supply.”

Read part 2 of this story.