My husband, Kevin, and I absolutely love to travel. We met in 2011 when I was a freshman in college and he was working in sales. We quickly became best friends and traveled all over Utah together, camping and hiking along the way.

A year later he got offered a job in the Chime-Long International Circus in Guangzhou, China. He played bass in their live band and even got to do a clown show. He also got to juggle with some of the world's most talented jugglers. While he worked, I wrote a children's book and started my own copyediting website. We lived in China for a year and traveled as much as possible in the Guangdong Province.

When we moved back to Salt Lake City, Utah, we decided to adopt a dog. Our sweet dog's name is Zuko and he's such a big part of our lives. He's half black lab and half border collie, which makes him unbelievably affectionate and incredibly fun to take on hikes.

For a few years I worked at Backcountry dot come as a copywriter and Kevin worked as a supervisor for a local financing company. We got married and enjoyed our honeymoon in California. We avoided the never-ending pressure from our families to have kids and spent our weekends exploring southern Utah. But we soon realized we were both bored with the monotony of the traditional 9-5 job and wanted more out of life. However, with Zuko in our lives, up and moving to a new country was out of the question. Then our friends suggested Alaska.

In 2016 we moved to Alaska to work on the Alaskan Railroad as servers/bartenders. We figured we'd spend the summer there and have a blast, then head back to Utah and get back into the swing of things. Boy were we wrong.

We saw a ton of wildlife, unbelievably beautiful scenery, and massive glaciers. We backpacked some intense and rewarding trails, met amazing people, and fell in love with Anchorage. We even bought a van, converted it, and drove it to Prudhoe Bay and back! And that got us hooked on traveling in a van. From there we visited Valdez, Wrangell St Elias, Seward, Kenai, and so on. Basically if there was a road, we followed it. Needless to say, we ended up staying much longer than just the summer.

After a year and a half of Alaska we decided to take our converted van and explore the rest of the lower 48. Neither one of us had even visited the east coast before, so we were eager to hit the road.

Buuuutttt as most people can relate to, life didn't go as planned. Our van shut down only 4 hours outside of Anchorage and the mechanic said it needed a new engine. Then the window motor broke in Whitehorse, Yukon. Then the transmission went out in Banff, Alberta. Then the engine went out in Spokane, Washington (yes, again... luckily some of it was under warranty). Then the transmission went out in Salt Lake City, Utah (yes, AGAIN). Then the joints, brakes, etc..... the list kept piling up and we kept paying. We didn't want to see our van die, but of course it eventually did and we had to let it go. -$30,000 later, anyway.

So over the spring Kevin and I worked in Utah and stayed with family. We explored Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and most of Utah. We also worked a lot so we could stockpile money and be prepared to move to Alaska. This time, though, we wanted to move there for good. We unloaded our storage unit in the summer and drove back to the state we now call home.

Now we're officially settled in. Zuko's happy and we love it here. Having a home base so close to the mountains and natural beauty is great, and we have flexible schedules that allow us to travel.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

One of the best parts about living in China was being able to live like the locals. We ate amazing food, made some great friends, and got to swap stories along the way. We also talk to a lot of tourists in Anchorage and enjoy how eager they are to explore a new place.

Kevin and I realized that if we want to have an authentic experience and see things only locals get to see, we should couch surf. I created this account in 2017 but due to our van troubles we never got around to using it. Now we're ready to meet new people and travel again.

Interests

• photography
• reading
• traveling
• hiking
• backpacking
• kayaking
• camping
• rock climbing

Music, Movies, and Books

We listen to a lot of different music including acoustic, indie, pop, big band, electro swing, metal, jazz, ska, and so on. That's what I get for marrying a musician :P

We don't watch too many movies but we enjoy most Judd Apatow films and anything that blows our minds (like Ex Machina). I watch a lot of Netflix too.

Kevin likes nonfiction typically, but I'm definitely way more into fiction. Lately I've been digging Stephen King and Orson Scott Card.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'd say my biggest accomplishment is backpacking over 30 miles in the deep backcountry of Alaska near Denali (called Kesugi Ridge).

Kevin's favorite thing is when he did the world's tallest bungee jump in Macau, China. I obviously think he's done crazier things but he's pretty excited about that one.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a writer by trade so if you have anything that needs editing I'm your girl.

Kevin's able to teach you how to play music, ride a unicycle, do a trick on a skateboard, fold origami, or any of his other talents.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love cooking and would be more than happy to make you a meal or two (or three) to show my appreciation for letting us stay with you.

We're generally on the go when we visit places so we keep our space tidy and try not to bother the hosts too much. But if you're free and want to spend time with us, we're always down to make new friends.

My Instagram is @vaguelycrunchy and my [hardly updated] blog is vaguelycrunchy dot come. Kevin's Instagram handle is @kevinhutsonorigami.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United States