Despite what you might think, this has nothing to do with socks, sweaty shirts or anything else that absorbs bodily smells while out on the trail. All those things are fine.

This is more in reference to things that have a pleasant odor, such as deodorant, toothpaste or even Gold Bond foot powder. Sure, these hygienic amenities will keep your feet dry, teeth clean and armpits wintergreened, but collectively they might have a dire effect for your face, limbs or vital sensitive organs.

Why?

Because it's not only your teeth and pits that love this stuff, but also bears. Forget about pots of honey, leaping salmon, or the half-eaten can of tuna lingering at the bottom of your bag; bears will go for anything with an odor – even your sunscreen.

That being said, is a black bear (all bets are off on grizzlies, they'll eat you just for fun) going to track you down and eat you because you put on sunscreen while hiking in the backcountry? No. They're too skittish of people and will run away once you make your presence known.

If, however, you leave these items lingering around a campsite overnight without having them stored in a bear storage bin, there's a good chance that you'll encounter some toothy rustling in the middle of the night. I know because I learned this hard way while hiking in the backcountry of California's Yosemite National Park. And with zero exaggeration, I'm lucky a bear didn't eat my face.

In a controversial video now percolating its way through the web, a woman who was filming herself stand-up paddling in India with a GoPro purportedly lost the hero-inducing camera in the surf, only to find it in a tide pool seven hours later with a memory card full of underwater coverage.

Many who have seen the video claim that it's staged, and it very may well might be, but in the end, who cares? She catches a wave I would love to find myself on, she gets underwater footage of sand crabs, the whole saga is perfectly set to music, and it's all tied together with her victoriously finding the camera in what appears to be a sunset filled with glee.

I've lost GoPros surfing before, and it's never fun. Actually, it pretty much ruins your day. I am happy for this girl for a number of reasons (main one being she's stand-up paddling in India), and whether or not a GoPro Hero 2 can actually hold seven hours of battery or whether the ending was staged or not, this video makes me feel good and makes me want to go to the beach.

What do you think? Staged? Real? Or who cares?

I know what you're thinking. Travel writers are always on vacation, so what a silly concept for an article.

Sure, climbing active volcanoes in Chile and staying in castles in Ireland sounds like an enjoyable time, and often times, it is.

But it isn't exactly a normal vacation.

When others might be bathing on the sundeck of a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef, travel writers instead find themselves interviewing the boat crew on the proper method for dealing with an irukandgi sting, lest they report an inaccuracy on one of the world's deadliest creatures.

Or, when returning from four days in the Andes after having climbed over Peru's Salkantay Pass, vacationing members of your tour group are enjoying $10/hour leg massages while you instead find yourself panting in the thin air of Cuzco in an effort to find an Internet connection because the four days in the Andes have left you woefully behind on deadlines.

Then, of course, there's the electronic merry-go-round of attempting to keep all your gear charged. As the travel world gets sucked deeper into the shrunken screen of a smartphone, so too must travel writers add more tools to their yak hair belt. Writer, photographer, videographer, researcher, coder, Webmaster, blogger, ad sales director, marketer and, of course, social media ninja.

This constant juggle of responsibilities invariably leads to such pleasurable experiences as sifting through the markets of Pulau Bintan looking for a new adapter, clandestinely blogging from a van parked outside of a New Zealand McDonalds (free HotSpot!), buying camera lenses from a questionable Thai gangster in Bangkok and avoiding strange looks as you send emails from inside the airport bathroom because you're on yet another six hour layover and it's the only outlet in the whole damn airport.

Exciting? Yes. A vacation? No. Believe it or not, it's actually a lot of work.

Which is why, on a recent cross-country road trip, I was bound and determined to simply take a normal vacation.

Gallery: 4,300 miles of America

Let's get real. The island of Maui isn't exactly a secret. The nation's 17th largest island (how's that for trivia points?) sees over two million visitors per year, and it's been voted as the best island in the world by Conde Naste readers an astounding 19 times. To say the least, it seems to be a vacation destination firmly on every traveler's radar.

While it's tough to compete with other global perennials such as Bali, Bora Bora, Kauai, or Santorini, what makes Maui an annual favorite is the diverse selection of offerings available for those who make the lengthy flight.

Want to lounge on a sandy crescent of a beach with the palm fronds rustling above you in the trade winds? Not a problem. Want to hike through bamboo forests and wade across mountain streams to a waterfall you refreshingly have all to yourself? Yep, it's got that too.

But what if you want to sit in the middle of ranchlands amongst green pastures where farmers still sell their vegetables on the side of two-lane country roads? A place where the cool 3,000-foot elevation warrants the use of a morning flannel, and the stillness of the morning air is matched only by the calm demeanor of the affable locals? A friendly smile here, a well-placed shaka there, and merchants who swap stories with customers they know by first name?

That can all be found here too, although you may have to drive a little farther to find it. While most visitors to the island will only venture "Upcountry" on their drive to the summit of Haleakala Crater, those who instead head out towards the ranching outpost of Ulupalakua (a one-shop town home to the island's only winery), will find a corner of the island where life moves so slow you'll wonder if time actually stopped.

If you are a U.S. wine industry buff, all around trivia guru, or Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man," you already know there are wineries in all 50 American states.

Yep. That's right. Pick a state and there is a winery there.

Alaska? Yep, there are 8.

Hawaii? Two.

Missouri? There are now over 100.

Wait. What? There are over 100 wineries in Missouri? Ranked as one of the top-ten wine producing states in the nation, Missouri not only has a number of distinct wine regions, but also has a legitimate wine trail and an established industry of wine tourism.

Of all the 100 or so wineries in the state, however, only one of them is famously located inside of a natural cave.

Located 1 hour and 20 minutes from the nearby metropolis of St. Louis, the Cave Vineyard is set down a country road in the heart of the St. Genevieve wine country where the rolling hills are more akin to Provence than those of the Ozarks. Though 14 acres of grapes surround the welcoming tasting room, the main draw of the property is the gaping Saltpeter Cave, which forms a hollow amphitheater perfect for wine storage, peaceful moments, and one-of-a-kind private events.

Visitors to the winery can taste their way through regional varietals such as Traminette or Chardonel, purchase a bottle, and subsequently gain free entry to the romantic cave where private tables for two are set next to a lightly flowing brook. The warm lighting stands in contrast to the cool cave temperatures, and this is as unique a spot as any for packing a picnic basket, taking a weekend getaway, and just exploring the beauty found on back country roads.

Getting There: Exit #150 off of I-55 if coming from St. Louis. West on Hwy 32, immediate left onto Hwy P. Go for two miles and turn right onto Cave Rd. Two more miles will bring you to the vineyard. Or, just follow the signs.

Hours of Operation: 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. daily (summer), 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily (winter)

No, this is not a flashback to the 1970s where we will be watching the trailer of a movie that scared a generation of children away from the water. We'll save that for another time.

Rather, in the surf world, "opening day" refers to the first time each season where a particular surf break surges to life and kicks off the upcoming season. Much like the opening day of your favorite ski resort, this is an exciting time if it happens to be your home surf break.

As it just so happens, a somewhat early-season typhoon spinning east of Japan created an opening day at Maui's fabled "JAWS" surf break, which was far earlier than anywhere on record. Usually Jaws will surge to life somewhere around Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas – and on some years not at all.

Furthermore, not only were Tuesday's conditions unprecedented in their early arrival, but the sudden disappearance of the near-constant trade winds made for glassy conditions, which ultimately led to a paddle-in session sure to go down in the annals of the sport. As more and more watermen continue to push the limits as to what exactly is possible out at Peahi, Tuesday was a day to be remembered and one, which produced footage able to be enjoyed by all.

For more photos and footage from Jaws, check out the "Opening Day" feature on Surfline.

Admit it. We've all bought terrible souvenirs while traveling. Even worse, occasionally even though we know it's tacky, inauthentic, cheap, or just plain useless, we end up buying them anyway.

Why?

Because the human mind is a really weird thing. Oftentimes, however, we are so wrapped up in the "magic of the moment" that for some beguiling reason it makes total sense to spend $19.95 on a knockoff vuvuzela, which will probably end up at a garage sale a year later.

Acting upon this strange human tendency to trade hard-earned cash for complete and utter trash, author Doug Lansky has compiled a book appropriately titled "Crap Souvenirs." The ensuing photo gallery features a snippet of some of the items you're bound to find in the book (miniature toilet ashtray anyone?), but we also caught up with Doug for a brief Q&A on just how the inspiration for this book originally panned out.

Gallery: Crap Souvenirs

China is notorious for knock-off items. Fake Rolex? Sure. Fake Gucci handbag? Why not? Maybe even a fake degree from UCLA?

While such items have become commonplace in the Chinese economy, the world's most populous nation may have just one-upped itself in a scandal involving fake fire extinguishers.

Yes, according to a recent post in Weird News Asia, officials in the inland metropolis of Chengdu seized close to 10,000 imitation fire extinguishers last month, which were instead filled with basic cooking flour.

Sure, the white puff of smoke, which emerges from the nozzle looks like flame extinguishing chemicals, but in reality it took two entire bottles of the flour bottles to suffocate a relatively small blaze. Probably better to find this out now than when your commercial oven is on fire during a packed evening rush hour.

To see a video of the fake fire extinguishers in action, head over here for some entertaining knockoff ingenuity, and as a bonus, some classic Chinese television.

[Photo credit: samantha celera on Flickr]

According to this recent release from the Independent, a woman from Georgia has documents, which claim she passed away at the tender age of 132. Contrary to what you might think, however, Antisa Khvichava didn't live a long life thanks to eating buckets full of peaches. Mrs. Khvichava instead spent her years in the village of Sachino, a remote village in the Caucuses Mountains in the country – not state – of Georgia.

Allegedly having spoken Mingrelian, a language that is classified by UNESCO as being endangered, relatives unfortunately hold no legal documents that date back to Mrs. Khvichava's actual birth. Instead, all of her legal birth documents were destroyed during times of civil war, and those legal documents which remain – including the one stating her birth as July 8, 1880 – were created long after her actual birth.

Nevertheless, everyone from townsfolk to relatives all vouch that Mrs. Khvichava was, in fact, 132 years old. Furthermore, they claim she attributed her longevity to a daily dose of brandy.

The U.S. state of Georgia, on the other hand, has the ninth worst life expectancy of any U.S. state, with the average resident living for 77.1 years.

Nevertheless, the world's oldest verifiable living person at the time of this writing was Besse Cooper, a 116-year-old resident of, you guessed it, the U.S. state of Georgia.

[Image courtesy of justin_vidamo on Flickr]

The house pictured above is a very drab house. It's cold. It's empty. And no one has lived in it for over 120 years.

Sure, there is a fresh layer of green paint on the door, but that was put there by the neighbors. Why they did that I'm not sure, because this house was abandoned long ago.

This house isn't anything famous, and it isn't in a town you've ever heard of. This house is in Lecanvy, Ireland, a one-pub village at the base of Croagh Patrick Mountain, 3 1/2 hours from the festive streets of Dublin.

Nevertheless, this house is very important to me, because this was my great-great-grandmother's house, a woman who's family one day just decided to leave it all behind and up and leave for America.

Perhaps it's the rise in popularity of websites such as ancestry.com, but for some reason "genealogy tourism" seems to be on the rise in the world's most famous "nation of immigrants," the United States of America. Despite the fact that millions of families took the plunge to move to a foreign land, their children many years down the road have not relinquished the curiosity to learn more about where it is they came from.

I hunted down this house because I happened to be in town, but for many travelers this form of "reverse immigration" seems to be a sector of the travel market that's broadening in scope.