CURRENT MISSION

Travel, adventure outside my comfort zone, pay it forward!

ABOUT ME

I am 67 years young. My husband is Canadian, I am from the US. We're young in spirit, but our bodies sometimes show the truth about our ages, especially on our recent rafting trip down the Zambezi River which was insane. I am a psychiatric social worker by training, then a Spanish teacher, now a writer of travel short stories. Brud, my husband, is an art teacher by training, then moved on to being the island fire chief and has just retired.

We live on a tiny island of 180 people. First of all you need to know that this is Washington STATE not Washington DC. Three thousand miles separate the two Washingtons. The group of islands where we live is called The San Juan Islands. We're near the Canadian border. Four of the islands are served by the Washington State ferries. We live on the smallest of these four - Shaw Island. There are more deer here than people, and many eagles, seals and whales. There are no bright lights, no restaurants or hotels or gas stations. There is a two room school house and a log cabin library. Transportation to the island is by ferry from the mainland one hour away. To live in this island paradise, it has been necessary to choose a "downwardly mobile" lifestyle and find creative ways to make a living.

Travel is our main passion, and we are trying to be creative about how to continue doing that. We have a small import business from Guatemala to pay for our time in Central America every winter. Hospitality organizations facilitated an Italy and Panama trip and three Turkey excursions. We love meeting fellow citizens of the world.

My husband and I met in Costa Rica 30 years ago and we return every year. We build driftwood furniture, hang our hammocks, put up our tent, fill our fruit-crate shelves with books and spend a month reading, relaxing, swimming and enjoying the sunshine. We love to camp.

We are very close to our community here on the island where we live, and have also become a close part of the communities where we are every winter in Guatemala and Costa Rica. Friendship is a treasure.

I am quick and very outgoing; my husband is, at first, more quiet. He is well read and has a great sense of humor. We are very neat, responsible, conscientious, honest (and fun) guests. Although we love contact with our guests or hosts and want to learn about other cultures and love sharing food and drink together, we also really like our privacy and independence to explore on our own.

Wanna read about Shaw and couch surfing and funny travel stories? I love my new passion of writing. "From Shaw Island to the Sahara" and "From Shaw Island to the Black Sea" and "From Shaw Island to the Zambezi" are now available on Lulu.com as well as Amazon..

We love this concept of couch surfing. I hate all the fear in the world and this stupid "war on terror"! We have found that the reality of this shared hospitality experience has been as good as we envisioned.

PHILOSOPHY

Treasure every day and live it to the fullest. Be kind to this earth. Live openly.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCH SURFING

with enthusiasm! Living in these beautiful islands, we get a lot of requests. We have lots of friends and family that visit, so we usually save our couch surfing spots for foreign visitors.

COUCH SURFING EXPERIENCE

We have been hosts for the past eight years and have loved the experience. We were hosted in Italy in 2008, Turkey in 2009, 2012 and 2015 and Panama in 2010. I have felt enriched by being a part on both "sides" of the cs experience.

Interests

Traveling, writing, gardening (both food and flowers), camping, river rafting, ethnic food, bridge, practicing my Spanish, wood sculpture (Brud), canoeing, beach combing, swimming WHEREVER there is water!

• chickens
• arts
• writing
• books
• dining
• gardening
• flowers
• reading
• traveling
• backpacking
• canoeing
• camping
• swimming
• teaching
• social work
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

My husband is a Metallica fan - I am NOT!! He also loves opera. When I listen to music it is from the 60's - folk or rock and roll. We both like action/PI books. I like books about women and travel. Brud also can be found engrossed in Rolling Stone or Shakespeare or Chaucer, the latter which I would only do if it were homework. We both love movies -action and dramas, tear jerkers and dancing but I seldom remember the titles; he likes noire and off beat, I like emotion and happy endings.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

oh oh oh...life has been sooo full - riding a camel in the Sahara, taking 500 tennis balls every year to Guatemala to throw to mountain children, river rafting, camping for a month every year in Costa Rica, the Taj Mahal in a blue moon, World Campus Afloat ship going around the world, 15 days in Morocco one year with 12 island women, backpacking Europe for 9 months a loooooooong time ago, living for a month in Khartoum, riding a motorcycle through Thailand, a career of working with emotionally disturbed kids, floating down the Amazon, Machu Pichu, "adopting" a rural garbage dump in Guatemala to give away a hundred pair of used shoes, inspiring kids about foreign cultures and travel, sailing the San Blas Islands, exploring the highlands of Eastern of Turkey

Teach, Learn, Share

edible flowers, sculpture, chickens, gardening, Guatemala, Turkey and Costa Rica traveling, beach life

What I Can Share with Hosts

enthusiasm for living and lots of questions :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Scotland, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Zambia

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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