Yesterday was a wonderful day in Costa Rica. I went down to C&C Surf Shop and took a lesson on a long board. My instructor, Samurio, was great and had me standing up in no time.

It’s really amazing how different surfing is once I have some instruction. When I lived in Costa Rica in 2004 my good friend, Joann, and I spent almost every weekend surfing. She is a natural athlete and has always been much better than me. She tried to show me the ropes, but it never really took as well as with one on one instruction.

So now I am super excited to get to surf everyday here in Samara. Jim has a surf lesson today and hopefully he’ll get the hang of it pretty easy so that I have a partner to go with me.

This morning and 5AM Jim and I were woken up by the sound of the house alarm blaring. I’m not sure how long it took me to become coherent, but it felt like a long time before I realized that it was the house alarm. I guess I am so used to being woken up in San Francisco by the various noises of the city (including car alarms) that it took a good while for me to realize that there might be something wrong.

My first instinct was to run upstairs and find out what was going on. Of course, Jim has stronger survival instincts and said that we would wait until somebody came down to let us know.

I immediately got on my computer to see if any of my roommates were online and could fill me in, but it didn’t look like they were.

The alarm seemed to go on for minutes, but I’m sure it was less. After the alarm was silenced we sat on our bed and waited. Waited for one of our roommates, waited for the sound of police, waited for anything, really. It never came.

After all the excitement I couldn’t go back to sleep, plus the not knowing was killing me! (And I was hungry) So I made my way upstairs with the intent to watch the sunrise. Of course, this is after Jim became protective and made me wait in the room while he looked around and made sure that everything was okay.

Well, I have pretty much missed the sunrise; it was mostly light by 05:30. It is nice and balmy this early with a light breeze blowing across our balcony as I listen to the waves in the ocean and watch an escaped horse walk down our long dirt road.

This dusky space between night and day is magical. The night creatures are settling down to sleep for the day as the animals of light begin to wake. It’s a cacophony of sounds that you don’t usually hear simultaneously, the rooster crowing incessantly as the crickets perform one last number in their symphony.

I am excited for the day to fully begin. Jim and I have a surf lesson this morning, which I am really excited about. I also want to figure out how to go horseback riding around here. I see people on horses all day in the field in front of our house.

Today in Costa Rica was pretty warm! Jim was exhausted from our trip so I got up early and did a little work. Then a little after 8AM Jim and I walked down to the beach and enjoyed the morning water. Even at 8:30 it was super warm and comfortable!

I was trying to body surf, but either the waves weren’t that great for it or I am just very out of shape. I only lasted about 20 minutes before I was feeling tired. Jim had brought his nice camera down to the beach and didn’t want to leave it unattended so he wasn’t in the water with me, which wasn’t as fun.

We also stopped by C&C Surf shop and booked a surf lesson for tomorrow morning. I can’t wait! It has been so long since I surfed last. I hope I can still do it.

Other than that, life in Costa Rica is very chill and relaxed. The town we are in is tiny so there isn’t a lot going on. After living in San Francisco for the last couple months I am welcoming the change of pace. It is so much nicer to be woken up by the sound of birds and monkeys in the yard rather than jack hammers and dump trucks.

Jim and I made it to Houston only to find out that our plan to San Jose was over sold. No problem though. We volunteered our seats and are reveling in the beauty of one more night in a nice hotel room (courtesy of Continental) with air conditioning and flying first class to San Jose tomorrow morning.

They also gave us some vouchers so now it is time to sign off and hit the hotel bar for some daiquiris.

As I write this, Jim and I are sitting in our hotel room in El Paso Texas awaiting our flight to Costa Rica.

I still can’t believe that we are going to be getting on an international flight and into the next adventure. I almost forgot to pack my passport! We’ll be flying to San Jose International and spending the night in the city before catching a ride up to Samara where we’ll be living for the next few weeks.

I’ll try to keep regular updates of our adventures. It should be really fun!

Jim and I are in New Mexico at the moment. We flew into El Paso, TX on Tuesday and Jim’s Mom and grandfather were there to pick us up.

This is just another stop along our whirlwind existence. Spending the month of June in Alaska was amazing. I made it back to San Francisco just in time for Jim’s brother, Michael, to arrive and spend a week with us.

Having Michael stay with us was great. Sometimes it takes an out-of-state guest to get you off your bum and out exploring the city that you live in. Jim had to work most of the time that Michael was with us so I took him on several different adventures. The first day he was there we walked about ten miles around Market and then down to Fisherman’s wharf where we both had clam chowder in a bread bowl for the first time.

Michael and I also spent a day at Alcatraz, which was amazing! For anybody who is ever thinking about going to Alcatraz, make sure to take the audio tour! It is narrated by past prison guards and prisoners.

So now Jim and I are spending this week in New Mexico for his family reunion and then onto Costa Rica for six weeks while we close down the CouchSurfing collective that is down there. Many more adventures to come!

Coming back to Alaska for three weeks is probably one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I couldn’t have asked for better weather. This morning my mom and I woke up to blue skies and 80 degree weather. When you live in valley surrounded by lush green hills and majestic mountains having a beautiful days is just icing on the cake. We didn’t want to waste it so we took to the hills of Hatcher Pass for an easy hike with the dogs.

Mom and me in Hatcher Pass

We hiked up a little creek that flows down past the lower mine parking lot. There were quite a few people out today, but it wasn’t crowded at all. It was great to be able to do something fun and energetic with my mom while having a good heart to heart.

The dogs loved it too. It was hilarious to watch them bouncing through the alders. Jax took to water really well. He was running up the creek since it was easier than trying to go through the brush. Sophie, on the other hand, will never be a water dog.

Jax all tuckered out after our long romp

When Jim and I go on adventures we are always trying to take funny photos of us jumping or being contortionists. I miss him a lot right but my mom was a really good sport about standing in with the camera as I tried over and over again to do a cartwheel that wasn’t a complete crotch shot. I don’t think we ever accomplished what I was going for, but it’s pretty hilarious the way it is.

Mountain cartwheels and crotch shots

I have also been having a great time catching up with my friends. Yesterday Becca and I enjoyed the sun in her yard while drinking wine and eating cherries. She even made moose meatballs for dinner due to my special request. I love moose meat the most and wish that I could eat it a lot more!

Coming back to Alaska this summer has been a great idea. The weather is much better than last summer and it’s only June!

I flew in Wednesday night and then headed down to Homer with Matt and the dogs Thursday to score a sweet camping spot for the rest of my family and friends for the weekend. It wasn’t necessary though, between fuel prices and the economy tanking, tourism is way down this summer. It’s going to be especially hard on towns where tourism is their only game in town.

Needless to say, we scored a great place on the beach. Everybody else came down Friday night and packed it into the motor home. We had a great time hanging out on the beach, halibut fishing and then hitting the town Saturday night.

We went a little too big on Saturday night and the guys ended up spending way too much money and Clay lost his jacket in the process, which happened to have his car keys.

Everybody headed back to Anchorage Sunday morningish, but Matt, Clay and I stayed in Homer to go on the adventure of tracking down Clay’s keys. It wasn’t all work, we stopped by the meadery and winery along the way. After five hours of driving from The Alibi to Down East and calling all the cab companies about a dozen times each, we conceded defeat and left Clay’s car down there. Not entirely sure how we are planning on getting it back to Anchorage. There has been talk about a suicide run down to Homer sometime this week, which is crazy talk!

Wow! I need to write more often. So much has happened this spring!

Where to begin? Well, I have been able to get out of town a couple times this spring. The first was to fly up to Portland to visit my good friend Cameron who was my first college roommate ever. We lived together at Alaska Pacific University and have remained friends ever since.

Cam, me and the Big Tree

Cameron is going to school in Portland and wanted to do something fun for spring break so I flew up to Portland for a couple days and then we drove down to San Francisco together. On the way down we stopped at a great lighthouse and got a private tour from the light house keeper who was a nice old fellow with a full gray beard. Exactly how you would imagine a light house keeper. We spent a night in Arcata with a pair of cool CouchSurfers named Jemma and Pat. Jemma works for CASA, an advocacy program for foster children. It was interesting to listen to her stories and how she helps these poor kids who get caught in the system.

Once we arrived in Berkeley Cameron was a little overwhelmed with the chaos of our house, but we had a good time exploring San Francisco together and we even drove to Big Sur for the day, which was beautiful. Luckily the weather was nice the whole time she was here and it wasn’t until she left that it started to rain.

CouchSurfing is moving its international headquarters (BaseCamp) to the Mission in San Francisco. Mandy, one of our volunteers, worked day and night to find a great property in the perfect neighborhood. We are moving April 25th, which has made life for me a little hectic trying to organize such a large move and get all the supplies we need. I know that it will all be worth it once it’s done. It’s hard to believe that we are actually going to be living in the city!

Our new backyard

Our new location is a pair of Victorian houses that share a common wall and a huge backyard. The backyard is the main reason that we fell in love with the place. It gets a lot of morning sun and has a long patch of dirt that we can grow food in. I’m not sure how we are going to set up the garden space. Hopefully some community members will volunteer their time and help us get it started.

We also hit a really exciting milestone in March with CouchSurfing. We finally got up to one million members! Our house celebrated by watching the countdown (or up, in this case) and drinking mimosas. We were also teleconferencing the countdown with our cohorts in Costa Rica, which was fun to be able to see them too. Once the number 1,000,000 flashed on the screen, Andrew was able to freeze the image so that we could all take photos.

It’s hard to believe that this simple idea that Casey came up with a decade ago has become such a huge social movement. It is inspiring to be apart of CouchSurfing and watching it grow so quickly. Very exciting times!

A couple weeks after the official rollover into one million members, CouchSurfers around the world hosted events in their cities to celebrate. San Francisco hosted its event in Golden Gate park where we had hundreds of members come out to celebrate together. I was amazed at how well the event went. We had dance lessons, language lessons, a pickup soccer game, and tons of other events that volunteers organized. Jim, TTT and I arrived at 11AM and didn’t leave until 5PM. No wonder I got so sunburned! San Francisco is a tricky city. It wasn’t very warm out so I never felt like I was getting sunburned. But that’s no excuse for forgetting to wear sunscreen, I know!

A Million Members!

Two weekends after the million member event a group of us drove down to Big Sur to go camping. My skin was still really tender from the initial sunburn so I made sure to cover up this time!
We had a great time at the Kirk Creek Campground. Our campsite was overlooking the ocean where we walked down and looked at the tidal pools. At night we hung around the campfire and one of our friends brought her fire poi and put on a show for us. Jim and I even got up and tried it. It was so much fun! The secret is that it doesn’t even burn when you hit yourself, although it hurts from the blunt force trauma of hitting yourself.
Our night of camping ended with a lot of drama when the crazy campground host tried to kick us out because he thought we were all drunk. The next morning we made an official complaint in regard to his harrassment and were surprised to hear that he is actually mentally ill and has caused many incidents with campers. Hopefully Dave won’t be around to ruin any other camper’s weekends much longer.

Perhaps the most exciting weekend so far has been my trip to Disneyland! When living in a house with up to 20 other people it can be difficult to get to know people one on one. That is why we designed a program called Platonatron. It’s platonic dating within the house where we match people up and they have to find something to do together. Walker, Marselles and I were matched up a couple of weeks ago and we decided that the best place to go would be the magical world of Disney. We drove down Friday afternoon and attended a house party in Long Beach with a group of CouchSurfers, which started off with me locking my keys in my car. Luckily AAA came and rescued them for me.

Me, Walker, Mars and the Magic Kingdom

We CouchSurfed with a really nice guy named Brian who lives only ten minutes away from Disneyland. He was so accommodating and understanding of our crazy schedule. We showed up to Disneyland Saturday morning at 10AM and hit the park running. It was Marselles’ first time at Disneyland and Walker is such a child anyway it was magical. Walker was able to get a fast track pass because of his leg and we didn’t have to wait in line all day. I complained to Walker that he has forever ruined Disneyland for me. I am never going to want to wait in line again!

Me and Marselles skipping with joy

At one point we were exhausted and sugared out and wondering how much longer until the fireworks that night. We were surprised the see that it was only 5PM! Another four hours until the fireworks show. We decided to tough it out and hang out in the park until the show. That mostly included eating sugary food and desserts. When it finally was time for the fireworks show we were so happy that we stayed. We were able to get a reserved seat on the benches in front of the castle and had the best view in the entire place. The firework show was amazing! The fireworks themselves were beautiful, but it was the perfect timing with the music that made it so special. The show incorporates songs and spoken word from the most popular Disney movies and rides. At one point they have a real person dressed as Tinker Bell flying over the castle with a magic wand. That was really cool.