About Samantha

The Grand Canyon, Arizona

Samantha was born in North Carolina. Her dad was a Marine (and then switched to the Coast Guard so he could spend more time with his girls) and military life naturally lends to a lot of moving: California, Florida, North Carolina (again), Georgia, Alabama, and finally 11 years in Alaska. She graduated from Kodiak High School and moved to Anchorage to attend the University of Alaska. There she took way too long to get her degree in Geomatics (hey, math is hard) and minored in Math.  She has worked in hydrography, aerial mapping, more traditional forms of land surveying, and currently venturing into engineering.

She has always loved the outdoors and nature. Living in Alaska really brought out her outdoor adventure side as she discovered hiking real mountains, sea kayaking, beach bonfires, camping, snowboarding, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, fishing, and appreciation for doing all these things no matter the weather (okay, not really, but she did go sea kayaking in January when it was 7 degrees out and windy).

She does not pinterest, instagram, or tweet. Hasn't facebooked since March 2013.

Crater Lake, Oregon

Her main interests include: 

Travel - Internationally: went to Thailand and India in 2009, Ireland 2011, Belize and Guatemala in 2012, and Australia is planned for her 30th birthday in Jan 2014. Locally: visiting national parks, small towns, and seeing new states (only 13 more to go).

Swetha's wedding Hyderabad, India

Reading - Non-fiction like The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Gran, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, Out of Captivity: Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Mark Deakins, and Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee. Fiction ranges from fantasy in George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones series to suspense in Dean Kootz's Intensity and Steven King's Lisey's Story, Duma Key, and The Dark Tower series to thought provoking like Yann Martel's Life of Pi.

Photography- She has debated several times starting her own business, but it seems like every one is doing it and that just takes all the fun out of it, so she does it just to do it. 

Fitness- running, cycling, hiking, high intensity interval training, tennis, yoga, kickboxing... willing to try just about anything!

Silver salmon fishing in Cordova, Alaska

Kayaking in Kodiak, Alaska