In the second of our profiles of superstar Ultimate Blog finalists we meet Kim (kwoolley77), whose Ultimate Whirl Tour (http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/kwoolley77/posts/1224-My-Ultimate-Adventure-A-Whirl-Tour ) and tireless campaigning nabbed her a place in the top six!

Name?
Kimberly Woolley (kwoolley77)

How old are you?
32

Where are you from?
Lenox, Iowa USA. It's a tiny farming community in the middle of America! A place where everyone knows your name, and everyone knows your business! It is a wonderful place to grow up and there's a strong sense of community! I live in San Francisco, California now and it's also "home."

What do you do?
I work as a Medical Social Worker at Stanford University Hospital Emergency Room. I help people during a major crisis or trauma in their life like car accidents, shootings and abuse. I provide crisis counseling and grief counseling. It is an intense profession but I love my work. I am fortunate that my life is more filled with downtime in my personal life to live to the fullest. When I'm not working you'll find me at the boxing gym like Million Dollar Baby (I've had at least 5 black eyes), putting my toes on the nose of my longboard, or dancing hip hop in my old-school high top Nike kicks.

Name the top 5 places you’ve been to in the world:

Lanai, Hawaii - I went to Lanai with a great friend during one of the roughest times in my life, my divorce. It's a romantic destination that I already had planned to go to with my then soon-to-be ex-husband. My friend and I had just stopped on Maui for a few days with another friend, so the three of us in beautiful Maui was more of a girls trip, but here I was with one friend on honeymoon island. Since I had a destination wedding we called it my destination divorce, and I can't think of anything more perfect to do in a time like that. We went to a nice dinner with all of the couples at the hotel's finest restaurant, smiled at the stares and asked the piano bar singer to sing "Princess Pupule" which was about a Princess that was unruly and gave all of her papayas away, yes she loved to give it away, hey we're talking about papayas! Lanai wasn't a complete honeymoon spot, we did find three single men who broke into our hotel pool and flashed us. We had to run like the wind back to our room, call hotel security and we were given a spectacular cheese plate and wine as an apology for seeing the men's genitalia. But the most incredible experience was when I went snorkeling in Hulopoe Bay and a pod of at least 25 dolphins surrounded me. It was profoundly peaceful, magical and brought me to tears! It's hard to get the fog off of your goggles after that but when I saw a baby shark about 30 minutes later, I didn't have to have completely fog-free goggles to high tail it back to shore.

Porto, Portugal - This beautiful old city only really needs two words to describe it: Port wine. I live near the wine country of Napa and Sonoma California and am quite familiar with wine tasting. You go in, pay your money, and they give you 5-6 tastes of wine. In Porto, the tasting at the wineries has a mandatory tour of the winery. Each taking at least 30 minutes which is probably smart since port has a higher alcohol content. I was with two friends and we were trying to make it to our 4th tasting of the afternoon, wineries were about to close but we couldn't leave Porto without going to Sandeman. We ran in and the staff politely explained that they were very sorry, the last English tour of the day was over and the only one left was in Portuguese. Needless to say, their port was fantastic (especially a 40 year old port that I purchased) and I picked up a little of the Portuguese language.

Essaouira, Morocco - A friend in the States had given me the name of his cousin and uncle who own a seaside restaurant. They don't check email and they don't talk on the phone much with family in the U.S. I was instructed to just show up, mention my friend's name, and I would be cared for like family. Oh, and the Uncle is the mayor of Essaouira, so don't embarrass the family! I walked into the busy restaurant at lunch time, where I had never seen so many fish heads laying on people's plates in any given restaurant and asked for the cousin. He was very busy but gave my friends and I the best table along the water. Introductions were short. He sent us fish, with the heads still on of course, along with bread and wine. We sat for a couple of hours not knowing what to expect. The cousin eventually sat down with us, and said that he was "ours," taking the rest of the day, evening, and next day off. His family and friends brought us into their homes, including the most beautiful home I've seen anywhere in the world, a riad built by one man's hands from the rooftop 4th story terrace down to the antique Moroccan tile on the main floor. We ate the best chicken tagine that we had eaten in Morocco, and we had eaten a LOT by that point. I laughed the hardest on that trip in the streets of Essaouira as I told my friend that I had gone along with a proposed marriage and wedding the next day, joking with the groom that he could marry my friend, and realizing in that moment at 3 a.m. that he was serious and we had better . . . RUN!!!!!!

Santa Cruz, California - This is where I learned how to surf in the frigid Northern California waters and it's also about an hour from my home in San Francisco. It's a cold, foggy, sleepy town with lot's of surfer dudes, some that talk slowly to you with that typical California surfer lingo, and others that are aggro and threaten your life for stealing "their wave" out in water. The later is rare since I don't steal waves of course! It's a place that I've spent some time alone with no TV, no phone, just me at dawn patrol trying to stay warm and catch one good wave. Santa Cruz is solitude for me. And a place with amazing burritos.

Maui, Hawaii - The Hawaiian Islands are very similar but so different. I tell friends that I if they were a Hawaiian island, that I can pick which island they would be based on their personality, likes and dislikes. Well I AM Maui. Great surfing, but not too great (and big) that I can handle the waves. Yummy Hawaiian food, including fresh fish that in Maui is generally served headless on your plate. Hiking, waterfalls, volcanoes, but nothing too extreme that my Dad can still enjoy it without having to look like a Mountain Dew commercial. Commercialized but also local places that I've been lucky enough to stumble upon. Sacred lands. Migrating whales and snorkeling. It's my paradise.

Summarize what your ultimate blog is about:
My blog is a mish-mosh of thoughts, including those where I try to describe myself, my sense of travel and fun, as well as following the contest's directions! I wanted to convey that I make the most of any situation when I'm traveling, and that it's almost always positive.

Why should the lovely travellers of Campfire vote for you/your entry?
Because I can guarantee that they will be happy with their vote when I am in a far away place doing incredibly good, generous work and giving my voters some laughs and panic sprinkled in for fun.

Are you offering people any particular incentives to vote?
Well, my roommates get rid of me for an entire month next year, so that's a huge incentive for them to pass this along to friends! No really, one thing that I am doing is donating $1 of my own money for every vote that mentions Heifer (International) to go towards a land resource project that Heifer International is currently working on in Tanzania. I'd like to see if I can check out that project while I am there and help with more than just the money. I am also cooking dinner for friends and giving them lot's of wine to convince them to promote me with their Facebook friends. I am baking pumpkin bars and cupcakes to give as part of a VIP package for people attending upcoming parties that vote for me. Finally, my friends stop being harassed after I know that they have voted, and immunity from that is priceless.

Finally, what would winning this competition mean to you?
Traveling, and winning this trip, is an extension of who I am. It's like a world champion skier breaking their leg and being holed up at home for a year on their sofa while they recover. It messes with who you are, with your spirit. Everything inside of me is telling me to travel, volunteer, to reach outside of myself, to give more than what I receive. If I receive this trip as a prize, there are a LOT of people that gave that to me, and I will have a lot of work to do to pay it forward!

Think Kim would make a deserving Ultimate Blog winner? Vote for her entry here! http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/kwoolley77/posts/1224-My-Ultimate-Adventure-A-Whirl-Tour

• ultimate blog
• adventure
• Morocco
• Hawaii
• California