Winston and Laurent in Austin

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KXAN Austin News Features Smile Trek (Video)

Winston and Laurent's Austin Video 
Note: They made this, not me.

Winston and Laurent were the first couch surfers I hosted within the CouchSurfing community. It was an incredible experience. I had so much fun that even though they stayed during three weekdays, it felt like a weekend full of good times.

This was a particularly inspiring couch surfing experience because, after several years of planning, Winston, a former Marine who had served in Afghanistan, was embarking on what he called "the Smile Trek." In September, he'll begin a 5,000 mile walk across Southeast Asia to raise money to help children in third world countries who have cleft palates. For $240 a child can receive a simple surgery to correct the condition, saving them from a life of shame and isolation.

Winston's website, http://www.smiletrek.org/, chronicles his journey and provides a place to make online donations that go directly to the organization providing the surgeries.

When he arrived at my place, Winston was on a pre-trek cross-country motorcycle ride with his best buddy Laurent to raise money for this cause from Rotary Clubs and get news media coverage. During his stay, he was featured on KXAN Austin News (see video).

I learned so much from Winston and Laurent about enjoying life to the hilt while focusing on helping others that it inspired me to create this site. Like them, I'm hoping to turn my travels into something that helps people in need.

San Francisco

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Secluded Marin Beach Cove With Andrew (Video)

I went to San Francisco thinking I was going to stay at youth hostels the whole time. But I booked too late and found that on the first night I had planned to be there, there were no hostel beds available anywhere in the city.

Remembering that I had recently created a profile on CouchSurfing.org, I looked for a place to stay on their website and quickly found Dan, who became my first Couch Surfing host. How lucky I was!

I'll always remember the evening he drove me on his motorcycle through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park and then alongside the beach.

Dan taught me what hospitality toward a traveler feels like and I learned a lot of details related to being a good host from him.

I stayed with Dan two nights and then stayed at the City Center Youth Hostel in downtown San Francisco for two nights. (Dan invited me to stay at his place the additional nights, but I wanted to experience a hostel.)

The rooms at the youth hostel were clean and the bed fairly comfortable, though the mattress sagged a bit more than I would have liked. I slept well. The vibe was was young and optimistic and the women who shared the four-person female-only dorm room with me had interesting stories to tell.

I enjoyed hearing different languages and accents while working during the day on my laptop in the upstairs lounge. This was just as good as or better than working from a coffee shop, in my opinion -- and the coffee and tea were free.

On Sunday, my friend Andrew and I went to a secluded beach cove down a trail somewhere in Marin, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, which was absolutely beautiful (see video).