Denver friends, old and new

On their way to catch their flight, Aaron and Lisa dropped me off at my friend Ann's house in Denver. She and I met in the Dominican Republic on our semester program there in 1999 and became fast friends. As the years have gone by it's been harder and harder to find time to see one another and we had dropped out of email communication, but we re-connected just in time to fit in a visit in Denver. Ann is as beautiful and glowing as I remembered her, although much has changed! She's now a pediatrician, has a great husband who is quite the jokester (Jonathan), is 13 weeks pregnant, has a beautiful historic home, and two affectionate dogs (Trinity and Heidi). Ann has a lot going on, but it was great to get the chance to catch up with her and to finally meet Jonathan.

Perhaps we've mentioned this (talk about it all the time!) but since March of 2006 Julio and I have become avid Couchsurfing hosts. It's an amazing free worldwide hospitality network – it's a great tool to find new friends in any town or city, nearly everywhere in the world! We've hosted dozens of people, but this was just my third time actually being the guest. My lovely hostess Julia set me up with a great foam mattress at her apartment as well as coordinated a fun outing with other Couchsurfing hosts and guests at a nearby restaurant – it was so fun to meet and share stories about travel and all the other things we have in common.