Do you remember the first time you visited someone else’s house and realized that things were just a bit different from the way your family did things? It rocked my world that not everybody grew up in a shoes-off, liquid-soap kind of household, like I did. It’s still hard for me to use bar soap in a hotel instead of my usual liquid, foaming hand soap. I was happy as a clam to see that one hotel in Japan provided a pump-style bottle of foaming face wash that doubled as a hand soap.…

I just got back from a weeklong vacation in Maui, where I spent most of my nights at the Grand Wailea resort. This is a really impressive hotel—the landscaping and gardens are amazing, and once you combine all that with the ocean view, it’s simply breathtaking. Parts of the hotel felt almost Italian or European, with the terra cotta colored tiles. I’m a light packer—between the pair of us, we brought two backpacks, one carry-on roller bag, and one tote bag. Since I hate checking in…