Bainbridge Island near Seattle is where I live, Seattle is where I work and is a city I love and know well. I was born in the state of Massachusetts, moved to Montana when my parents got divorced in 1976, Missouri in 1978, and Washington in 1980 just in time for the Mt. St. Helens eruption. I've lived in the Seattle area ever since.

The story of how I began to love travel and travelers began shortly after we moved to Missouri in the 70s. I was in the 7th grade and had no friends, and one day my teacher came in and said a girl my age in Germany wanted to write letters to someone in the states. I wrote to her and she wrote back. In 10th grade I went to Germany and stayed with her family for 6 weeks. Since then we have continued to visit each other and the story is long, but the most recent event was my oldest daughter going over to Germany and traveling around with my friend's daughters. My second daughter has been to Sweden and India, and my son's trip is going to be to Spain.

I've been facebook free for 10 years and it feels great. Aside from Couchsurfing, I think my only other social site is linkedin.

I have a demanding job and it can be quite stressful. A few years ago I had a "life is short" moment and I decided to take every opportunity I could to travel. Music is frequently involved. I'm not much of a musician, but if there's a good beat you can bet I'm going to be dancing to it! And of course I will always be down with trying the local cuisine. I'm sure there's something out there I won't try at least once, but I haven't found it yet!

One thing I've learned from my travels is that the world is full of wonderful people, which gives me hope for humanity during these trying times. And people traveling on an adventure are simply my favorite people. My last trip outside the states was to India, and it was there I met a wonderful woman named Katie, who lived in the Philadelphia area at the time. That was 11 months ago as I write this and we are now married and living on Bainbridge Island, which is a short ferry ride from Seattle. Turns out she loves to travel and dance as well!

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

As Katie and I were planning a trip to Nicaragua for our honeymoon I stumbled upon a site that mentioned Couchsurfing. I looked into it and realized what a wonderful idea this is! We can't wait to see how this adventure unfolds!

Interessen

• music festivals
• wine
• surfing
• sailing
• beaches
• vegetarian food
• mindfulness
• tequila
• yoga and meditation
• steak
• martini stirred with a twist

Musik, Filme und Bücher

Books: Crime and Punishment, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Stand, Moneyball. Movies: The Godfather, Field of Dreams, Princess Bride, Captain Ron, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Parenthood, Unforgiven, Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Elf. Music: The list is long, but a couple are Old 97's, Bomba Estereo, John Lee Hooker, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Ana Tijoux, Wolfe Tones, Altin Gun, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ramy Essam, Aretha Franklin, Digable Planets, Beatles, Spoon, Whiskeytown, La Santa Cecilia, Arctic Monkeys, the Gits, Dandy Warhols, Taj Mahal, Beastie Boys, Chamanas, Blackberry Smoke, Sublime, Sharon Jones, Los Lobos, John Lennon, the Clash, Gram Parsons, Grace Love, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Deee-Lite, Bob Marley, and Santana. Just to name a few.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

In 2002 I became a volunteer firefighter.

Lehren, lernen, teilen

KEXP.org - best radio station ever, has listeners all over the world, and if you haven't heard it yet you definitely should! It's the University of Washington station, they're non-profit and commercial free, supported by their listeners. They play all kinds of great new and old music, but they also do a bunch of specialty shows. Monday night (Seattle time) is El Sonido, the latin music show. Tuesday night is Wo Pop, world music. Wednesday night is the Roadhouse, American folk and roots music. Thursday night is Swinging Doors, classic American country. Saturday morning is Positive Vibrations, reggae music. Sunday morning is Preaching the Blues, awesome blues. The best part is all their shows are archived for two weeks, you can go to your computer right now and find any of those shows, and there are more as well (hip hop, metal, local music, etc.) Do yourself a favor and do that now!

Was ich mit Gastgebern teilen kann

Comradery.

Länder, die ich besucht habe

Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Switzerland

Länder, in denen ich gelebt habe

United States