CURRENT MISSION

To find joy in every day.

ABOUT ME

There are 4 of us, Kate, Jeff, and our two kids. Three of us live in Phoenix, and our oldest lives in Boston (MIT)! We have been back in the US for six years now after backpacking around the world together for 14 1/2 months (22 countries!) After many years of dreaming and planning, we took leaves from our jobs, rented our house, sold our cars, and packed up our world into 4 seemingly small but heavy backpacks. To read more about our trip, visit our website at www.wells360.com.

About us: We love to eat, laugh, travel, read, hike, ski, hang out, and generally find merriment wherever we can. Kate is a founder of a Museum where she is the CEO and has also worked for PBS, loves art, gardening and thinks she is the mother to all children. Jeff is an "engi-nerd", loves to snowboard and is fond of microbrews. Our kids are just the coolest. I know others think their kids are the coolest, but ours really are :-) They are 16 and 20, love adventure, all sports, origami, anime, other kids, reading,sushi. One is a singer/dancer and the other a fencer(epeeist!). Their flexibility, can-do attitudes, and willingness to try anything at least once are what made our trip possible (and what made the trip amazing). We've yet to find a person that doesn't think they are awesome young people.

PHILOSOPHY

Be nice. Be grateful. Learn something new every day. Teach someone something every day. Eat good food that is good for our bodies and easy on the earth. Try our hardest. Live our lives like a Walt Whitman poem. Have fun.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We have successfully couchsurfed around the world - BEAT THAT! We have hosted 50+ people at our home, and surfed at least that many couches during our year of travel. Also, we have probably told 1,000 people about couchsurfing and have helped add more than a few new CS'ers to the ranks!

When we got home, the local TV station did a story on us couchsurfing, so now we're spreading the word to our entire city! Check it out... http://www.abc15.com/dpp/lifestyle/travel/need-an-adventure-try-'couch-surfing'

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have hosted a bunch, and surfed a ton too. We also take part in a few groups, and used to be active with the city group where we live but are taking a break. We've lost track, but have probably introduced a thousand people to CS since we started our trip - everytime I log on and see how HUGE CS has gotten, I feel a bit of pride :-)

Interests

Travel (duh), water sports (all of them), skiing/snowboarding, soccer, gardening, hiking, reading, yoga, ballet, chatting, music, great food, organic u-pick-it farms, good beer, good conversation, funny people, cool kids that aren't whiney, great art, shopping,architecture, fresh eggs from our chickens, coffee and tea. Meeting like-minded open-minded people.

• chickens
• arts
• writing
• architecture
• ballet dancing
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• yoga
• gardening
• shopping
• anime
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• cars
• origami
• magic
• music
• hiking
• backpacking
• surfing
• skiing
• snowboarding
• sports
• fencing
• soccer
• track and field
• mathematics

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

We can't even begin to touch on all the amazing things we've done and seen, but watching our kids grow into junior world ambassadors has been pretty insanely awesome. As for Kate, right before we left I opened a giant, fabulous children's museum! It took 10 years and I am VERY proud of it. Check it out... www.childrensmuseumofphoenix.org

Teach, Learn, Share

Grow something you can eat and share with others. It is such a great feeling to see a tiny seed turn into an amazing eggplant/tomato/pea/etc. I also love to teach people the magic of composting!

Be especially nice to children and old people. They deserve it and you will learn something about the world and if you are lucky, about yourself.

Hurricanes are really serious stuff. Leave if you can.

Writing a REAL thank you note is really nice. And your mom would be proud.

Things we can teach/offer: How to travel the world with a family on $100US or less a day, cooking, how to plant a garden, starting a compost, advanced math homework, origami, cartwheels, skiing/snowboarding...

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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