This may have been my favorite place from the entire trip to Maui, the red sand against the turquoise water was incredible, we got lucky to and got it to ourselves for lots of the time. Had the chance to swim in it as well and that was awesome!

The road to Hana is a long stretch of road along the coast, with hundreds of tight corners and nearly as many waterfalls. One of the sketchiest roads I have ever driven but it was so worth it because the scenery was absolutely stunning, coastal views and waterfalls were along the whole road, I took some pictures of a few of them but didn't even get close to capturing all of them.

Even though we got skunked on the upper half of the national park and got completely rained out and were not able to see anything on the volcano side of things we got to visit it on the coastal section for a huge waterfall and another great trail through the jungle.

One of the coolest trails I have ever hiked, out of this world. Started off with a really dense and cool bamboo forest and moved into a series of river crossings and waterfalls and pools.

The black sand beach was incredible, worth the hassle of getting permits and planning it all out. The black sand was extremely unique and more than I expected it to be, especially in contrast to the bright blue water. Would highly recommend to anyone going to Maui as a must.

Of course there is a whole post written only about the food we ate on Maui. As I would consider myself a foodie, eating experiences while traveling is a large part of why we go on trips. Although expensive, the food on Maui was overall great. A few let downs and a few amazing spots that stood out but overall pretty darn good food. Lets start with our top 3 dinner spots around the island: 1- Cafe O'lei was easily our favorite restaurant on the whole trip. Started with some mock-tails and moved on to the appy, fried calamari steak, which I was hesitant about but it was seriously 10/10 tender and delicious. For my entree I had swordfish with a couple great sauces and it was incredible. Allie got a lamb shank that was also great. Finished it off with some of the best ice cream I've ever had and it was a near perfect Experience, especially when paired with the amazing views/location and personable service. 2- Kimos was a close runner up located on the West side of the island. The location was fire, sitting right on the shore of the ocean over a sun rise and on one of the coolest if not the coolest street on the island. The poke avocado dip starter was great, local colas were also a great addition. My meal was amazing with a filet mignon steak and lobster tail and Allie had a fresh caught crusted mahi mahi. 3- Humble Market at the Marriott resort. This was an experience, beautiful place. The pina coladas were great and the fancy pot stickers were a great start. Allies meal was phenomenal, filet mignon steak and some amazing sides. I was slightly disappointed because I strayed from what I usually do and got something unique, where it was good it wasn't quite worth the price. Overall a great dinner and good way to cap off the trip. Honorable Mentions: -Hula Grill -Paia Fish Market -Miso Phat What About Lunchée? Our top 5 lunch spots are: First stop, Maui Fish n Chips. Simple yet amazing fish n chips, great tartar sauce and fries were great too. Tasty, well priced and large portions. Good service as a bonus. Would 100% recommend to anyone in the area as a must so. Secondly, Down The Hatch. I think of all our favorite lunch places the location and vibes were the best here. Food was incredible, loaded fries and fish tacos did not disappoint! Again the scenery and location were prime and this made for a perfect lunch stop. Another great place was Hana Farms, the only thing here was basically pizza but it was really really good pizza. Another must visit lunch stop on the road to Hana. They also had a cool little store with some good banana bread. We had a lot of tacos as the days went on but I think Tight Tacos is simply better than all the others. They were good ol' fashioned street tacos loaded with toppings and very tasteful. The fish you could tell was very very fresh and the beef and chicken were great too. If you're in the area, make time for Tight Tacos. Da Fish Shack was also a great place for some road-side, food-truck fish. We got the fish tacos and shrimp tacos and they were both fantastic. Side of chips and salsa put it over the edge to make the final spot on our top 5 lunch spots. Of course there were several other places that were good that didn't make the cut. We had less than a handful of restaurants that we would not recommend to others or do again but overall had a great culinary experience across the island of Maui. Snack Stops: Snacks on a trip can be just as or more important than the rest of the food and we did some stops for that as well. Shave ice was something we did nearly every day and for good reason, its the perfect treat for a beach day. Our favorite spots were 1/2 Da Kine Shave Ice on the west coast and Ululanis that you can find all over. Honestly these are the only places I'd go back, we tried a few others that were good but just not the same. We did get some home made popsicles that were also delicious, cool one of them was made with sugarcane as the stick. Also had a great açaí bowl one morning from Hana Bowls. Another place that is a must for snacks is Honolulu Cookie Company, amazing little short bread cookies are worth the slightly high price tag.

Went back to KC for the weekend. Took the family this time. Spent most of our time eating BBQ: Jack Stack and Joes were the favorites, with Q39 as a close runner up, from burnt ends and rocketpig sammies to BBQ poutine. Went to the game of course and watched the Chiefs spank the Rams. Good game with good fans and teams. Got to also see some church sites and war museums and that was also really cool to see.

Did a 8.5 mile, 3000 ft elevation gain hike to an alpine lake in the Grand Tetons National Park. It was a very hard but very worth it hike, seeing the rivers and the mountain peaks and of course the amazing lakes at the top. We also spent the night in an awesome campground. I managed to snag a site at Jenny Lake Campground which was such a good spot. I would happily stay there again and it was stunning.

Spent the day around Jackson Hole, tried some bison burgers and tasty sweets. Then we got the chance to go white water rafting. It was such a blast and we got soaked, swam a bit in the river and went through some pretty big and long rapids.

Did a little bit of spelunking in pole creek caves. They were extremely cool and there were so many small cavers as well as large open rooms with a water pool and some underwater caves at the end. It was pretty crazy when we were deep into the cave and shut the lights out, no once of light and it was a cool feeling. The water was freezing as well and I had to piggy back Allie across some of the small ponds.

Hopefully the first of many easter campouts up the Uinta Canyon. Did some really cool river fishing and caught some pretty Brook Trout. Did some drone flying and a cold plunge in the river. Pepsi even had the chance to go on her first campout. Loved camping up the Uinta Canyon and the dispersed camping all over.

On our way up to Vanderhoof we decided to stay a few days in Calgary to split up the trip a bit, we had an awesome hotel right downtown, went to a swanky dinner spot were able to see the temple there and got some pastries. Was a great way to see one of the places we drive through and not just from the gas station as we sped through. Go Flames!