Hello and welcome to AXW Travels!

I created this site to share my traveling adventures with family and friends who like to live vicariously through me through my adventures. I hope to inspire everyone to travel the world and experience new sites and cultures! To date, I’ve traveled to 68 countries (according to the Traveler's Century Club), and my goal is to be able to join that club with 100 countries! While I still have a ways to go, it’s a lot of fun writing about the adventures I’ve had so far.

On this site, you can find stories of my adventures I’ve written so far, recipes from some of my favorite dishes I’ve experienced while traveling, and tips I use when planning or traveling.

AXW Travels

Finland – In Search of the Northern Lights

One of the advantages of working for a global company is the opportunity to travel to offices in other locations… and tack on personal travel to those trips. I was planning a trip to the London office in February 2017. I’ve never been anywhere with tons of snow in the winter so I decided to tack on a trip to northern Finland to see the northern lights!

axwestlake

Feb 19, 20176 min read

Iceland – Waterfalls and Sagas

Flying first class was way too expensive, but we still wanted to be comfortable for an overnight flight so we purchased the middle seat between us. That way we had an entire row to ourselves. On a completely booked flight, we got a lot of angry looks when we started to spread out in our row. Totally worth it!

axwestlake

Aug 26, 20105 min read

South Carolina – Escaping the Snow

Sometimes, when the weather is bad and flights are delayed and canceled, things seem to work out. I was at a customer site in Columbia, SC for a few days. On the third day, there was snow in the forecast. As you can probably guess, Columbia doesn’t get much snow so they don’t handle it very well. Around noon, the customer told me we should cancel the class for the rest of the day and I should try to get out of town asap.

axwestlake

Jan 1, 20103 min read

Ohio – Traveling with Cats

When I moved from Seattle to Cleveland in November 2003, I was very clever (or thought I was!) by donating all of my furnishings and shipping about 30 boxes to Ohio with all of my personal stuff. I didn’t have a place to live yet so I shipped all 30 boxes to my friend’s home. I think I still owe her a good dinner since the boxes showed up on her doorstep on a snowy, cold evening and she moved them all into her dining room that night.

axwestlake

Sep 30, 20055 min read

Peru – Amazon River Adventures

People always ask what my favorite destination is. When it comes to the most eye-opening experience and the one that made me grateful for all my experiences, Peru is at the top of the list.

axwestlake

May 31, 20057 min read

Netherlands and Greece – Canals and Island Hopping

In 2004, I was getting more adventurous and confident about traveling by myself. I decided to take my first solo trip to a country where English was not the first language, but hopefully enough people spoke English. Tapping into my success with REI, I booked a trip to Greece to do some hiking in the Greek Islands. To extend my vacation a bit, I added a few days in Amsterdam before starting the hiking trip.

axwestlake

Jul 31, 20045 min read

Australia and New Zealand – Melbourne and the Milford Track (again)

After returning from New Zealand in 2002, I convinced my brother to visit New Zealand with me in 2003. I also took the opportunity to visit another part of Australia, Melbourne. Why Melbourne? I stayed in touch with the two guys I met in 2001, Adam and Anthony, and lived in that area.

axwestlake

Nov 30, 20038 min read

Utah – Canyon Hiking

In the summer of 2003, I flew to St George, UT for a short hiking trip with some friends. I didn’t know what to expect but the area was stunning. The pictures don’t do it justice. This post has no story… just pictures of my experience.

axwestlake

Jun 30, 20031 min read

New Zealand – The Most Beautiful Hike in the World

Whenever people ask me, “What’s your favorite country?” I always reply that it depends. It depends on whether people are asking about favorite people, favorite food, favorite scenery, etc. When it comes to favorite scenery, New Zealand wins… by far. New Zealand reminds me a lot of western Washington, but there’s something more magical about it.

axwestlake

Sep 29, 20024 min read

Washington – National Parks

In the summer of 2002, I took a few weekends to visit various parts in Washington. This post just has some pictures from this trip around Washington.

axwestlake

Jun 30, 20021 min read

Hawaii – Kona with Colleagues

In 2002, a couple of colleagues and I wanted to escape from work so we decided on a long weekend trip to Kona, Hawaii.

axwestlake

Jan 31, 20023 min read

Australia – My First Time in Oz

In 2001, I decided to take my biggest vacation ever… to Australia! I had been traveling for work for a few years at this point and had saved up enough points to help pay for such a big trip.

axwestlake

Nov 30, 20015 min read

England – Owls, The Chunnel, and McDonald’s…. Oh My!

After my success in traveling to England on my own in 1999, I decided to do it again in 2000. This time, my mom came with me. The trip started a bit rough. We were flying from Seattle to London via Washington Dulles. The trick was that we would catch a train in London up to Scotland for the first few days of our trip. But that, of course, depended on getting to London in time.

axwestlake

Sep 29, 20004 min read

Alabama – Out in the Boonies

At a previous company, we had customers in some pretty remote locations across the United States. One that sticks out in my mind is Troy, Alabama. Troy is about an hour south of Montgomery and feels like a world away.

axwestlake

May 30, 20003 min read

South Dakota – Lost Luggage

This story is from one of my business trips. It was early on in my traveling career when I still checked luggage rather than carried it on. This trip to South Dakota changed my mind and I started carrying my bags on.

axwestlake

Jun 29, 19993 min read

England – Wandering Around the Lake District

In 1999, I guess I was starting a tradition of a big annual trip. Where was my next one to be? I was still in my early days of traveling internationally, so I wanted to travel to someplace safe and easily navigate. England! They even speak the same language!

axwestlake

Jun 29, 19996 min read

Texas – Staying at a Roadside Motel

I’ve learned a lot about traveling over the past 20 years of business travel. One that sticks out in my mind is the difference between “hotel” and “motel.”

axwestlake

May 30, 19993 min read

Tahiti – Club Med (never again!)

OK, I’ll admit… after my successful trip to Mexico, I struggled to try to figure out my next trip. Between 1997 and 1998, I switched jobs, so I was now working as a consultant, which meant I traveled a lot for work. I started to earn hotel points and airline miles but not enough to really pay for a trip. I don’t even remember how I thought of it but I started thinking about Club Med and the fact that those are all-inclusive vacations.

axwestlake

Dec 1, 19983 min read

Mexico – Kayaking in Baja California

Do you remember the first time you realized that the job you had would pay you to go on vacation? For me, it was 1997. I worked at a local university, and it was my first “real” job. Around June of that year, I looked at my first paystub and saw my vacation balance for the first time. How amazing is that? This employer will pay me not to work! I began planning my first vacation as an adult.

axwestlake

Dec 31, 199710 min read