Dec 112009
 

During the week of Thanksgiving we decided to try something different.  We went on cruise!

The story of why this happened actually goes back a few years…

When Alexander entered 7th grade I made a promise to him.  I said if he got all A‘s on his report card for his world geography class for the entire year, he would get to choose the destination of our family vacation.

When the school year finished and he had achieved a nice set of A‘s, it was time to make good on a promise.  Unfortunately we could not drop what we were doing to simply trample off on some exotic journey.  That would have been great, but reality had to play a part.

When Alexander realized that we would not immediately go on his desired vacation, he was a little sad and then set out to take a year to really decide where we should go!  Actually he decided pretty quickly on the Bahamas and Jamaica, but we weren’t going to do both.  It took a while to figure out that a cruise might be the answer.

But, then we could not find a cruise that would go to both destinations within the same one-week cruise.  Bahamas typically shows up in Eastern Caribbean routes, where as Jamaica usually appears on Western Caribbean routes.

Finally, earlier this year, I got a Royal Caribbean cruise catalog, gave it to Alexander and said, “pick one!”  Perhaps he could not use it to pick something specific, but at least it would allow him to narrow down the field.

He and his sister poured through the catalog looking reading descriptions until they found some things that sounded good to them.  Adventure was in, shopping was out.  I’m happy with that choice too.

Then we refined the date to Thanksgiving so that the kids would only have to miss two days of school.  Once again we had to adjust the cruise choice to one that was available during that week.  Fortunately, once all criteria were applied there was still one option left…

Freedom of the Seas

Royal Caribbean - Freedom of the Seas

By July we had settled on the details of our journey aboard Freedom of the Seas.  We picked our cabin, made our reservations, and let Royal Caribbean handle the details.

It was an incredible week with a balcony stateroom, snorkeling at three islands, and tons of good food!

Stay tuned for more details and photos coming soon…

Oct 072009
 

I have a number of travel goals including visiting more than 100 different countries.  While I have a good start, there is obviously a long way to go (and a long way to travel).

Below is a map of the world.  The countries shown in red are those that I have visited.  There are a few observations that one can take from looking at this map.

  1. There’s no red showing in the southern hemisphere.  Clearly I need to rectify this problem.  The equator currently serves as a barrier.
     
  2. The countries I have visited cover most of the landmass of the northern hemisphere.  Of course, North America and Russia will do that!

There are several things you cannot tell simply by looking the map.

  1. My visit to Poland and Japan did not involve ever getting out of the airport.  So, these two countries need future attention!
     
  2. I have not visited Alaska.  It is colored ref simply because it is part of the United States.
     
  3. The software that created the map marked England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland simply by checking United Kingdom.  Indeed, I have visited England and Scotland, but not Wales or Northern Ireland.
     
  4. The map detail is too small to represent several islands in the Caribbean that I have visited.

map of the world with visited countries in red
visited 26 countries (11.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Sep 292009
 

Are you looking for me?  If you’re trying to find Jeffrey Kirk you’ve come to the right place.  Well, you might have.  You see, there is more than one Jeffrey Kirk in the world.  Yet I am only one of them…

This one lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin, has a wife and two kids, works at Comstar by day, likes to bicycle and ice skate, helps resettle refugees, and pours chocolate fun between all the remaining cracks. 

If you want to keep up with me try following me at Twitter or Facebook or any one of the other various sites that are linked in the side bar.  I am best at updating Twitter.  For that reason I’ll even have this blog pull in weekly Twitter recaps (assuming I can do that).

In the meantime, I’ll also try to make this site interesting for those who know me.  And, I also welcome  your comments.

If you don’t know me, perhaps I’m not the Jeffrey Kirk you’re looking for.  In that case this site might not be very interesting to you, but I wish you the best of luck in trying to find your most significant Jeffrey Kirk.  When you do find him, let him know I think he’s got a great name!