Anyone who knows me and my husband knows that, for many reasons, we love to travel. Clearly, one of the biggest benefits of travelling is getting away from work and stress and re-charging. For me, however, one of the most enjoyable benefits of travelling is learning something new and taking that knowledge home with me.

For example, while  in Alaska, we learned the difference between wild and farmed salmon and, now, I exclusively buy wild salmon.  In Greece, they do not use lettuce in their Greek salads, using only chopped vegetables, feta, and olive oil. To the delight of my family, I have begun preparing my Greek salads at home in the same way. As for olive oil, after spending time in both Italy and Greece, I try to exclusively use either Greek or Italian olive oil in my cooking.

In Hawaii, I was fascinated learning about the native culture and their belief systems. I brought home a small statue of one of their idols which generally sits on a credenza in my office. If I am  expecting, however, a settlement conference to be especially adversarial, I have been known to place the idol in the conference room where the conference will take place.   While I cannot state that the idol has, itself, led to cases settling, it has broken the tension in the room numerous times when it has been noticed or I point it out to people and  explain its purpose.

What do you bring home with you from vacation?