We, Peter and Laura, have been married 39 years, have two grown children, live in this beautiful rural spot near the ocean an hour outside of San Francisco, and spend a lot of time outdoors hiking and gardening. We are both native New Yorkers, and moved out to the Bay Area almost fifty years ago now. Peter designs and builds gardens, and Laura is an architect who designs houses and house additions. She is currently taking an intensive course to be certified as a "master gardener." During Covid Times, we took ornithology and marine biology courses at our local community college. Laura loves to dance, and has a big group of women who get together to do that once a week. She also practices "Action Theatre (a sort of improv), and occasionally performs as a clown. Peter has a big circle of men with whom he gets together for camping, fun, and community service. We are both scared of the right-wing, authoritarian trends in our own country, and doing our best to help to elect a better government.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

There is no better way for us to get to know a new country or culture than by getting to know natives personally, living and shopping as they do, and especially cooking and eating and living together. We are frankly more interested in that than in seeing all the famous tourist attractions. Laura and I love to travel. We are both moving towards retirement, and therefore will be on a fixed income and needing to travel frugally, so couch surfing is the perfect combination of affordable and giving us the contact with the local way of life.

Interests

• books
• architecture
• cooking
• gardening
• politics
• hiking
• backpacking
• mountaineering
• history
• travel
• nature
• dance
• language
• buddhism
• activism
• bicycling
• urban planning
• community
• human nature
• etc. etc.

Music, Movies, and Books

So many. We love 60's-70's rock music, folk music, classical music. "Casablanca" is Peter's favorite movie, but we like a lot of different movies of many genres. Books all kinds!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

We spent a week in the Baliem valley in Irian Jaya in Indonesia- at that time hundreds of miles from the nearest road. Look it up. Amazing! Peter hiked around Annapurna. We both grew up in New York, one of the highest-energy cities in the world.

Teach, Learn, Share

see below for what we might share with you or teach you. Peter loves to learn just about any language, and both of us just want to know more about different ways of life, and share in whatever you want to share about your life and community.

What I Can Share with Hosts

We love to shop for food and to cook in foreign countries, and would be happy to cook for you. Peter speaks several languages and would be happy to help you with learning languages he knows, especially English, of course. We could also help you with house or garden design or building projects. We love to talk and tell and hear stories. We would also be happy to host you, if you come to California, in our rural paradise near San Francisco.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, British Indian Ocean Territory, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, United States