maui: go beach

The rest of our time on the island turned into a variation on a theme involving fruit, the beach and bikes. Therefore, instead of document each weekend, here are a few highlights from the remainder of our time living maui style. We also stopped taking the camera everywhere so have fewer pictures to share. But the pictures we have really do capture the beauty of the island.



We spend a few days walking the white sand beaches of Wailea and Kihei. You can take the city bus all the way down to the end of a long strip of beaches. We tried some local foods that day including a plate lunch of kalua pork and teriyaki. The place we ate at had been recommended, but we discovered that maybe our tastes weren't quite the same. Nevertheless, we could say we had tried it. We also had a shave ice and got a super sugar rush (and a little bit of a belly ache). The next day we decided to check out our local beach, Spreckelsville (named for the Spreckels sugar empire). There were some local families there, but otherwise it was pretty empty. That's it in the picture above.



Our next weekend we visited the Maui Swap Meet and loaded up on fruit from local vendors. Lots of citrus, a pineapple, and some crazy fruits like the egg fruit (turned out to be inedible by our standards). We were going to see a show at the Arts & Cultural Center that night, so with the afternoon, we biked out to Ho'okipa to watch the windsurfers.



For our last weekend, we had a car so we could get around a little easier. We had yet to get in the water for some snorkel action, so we spent Saturday morning trying to find the best snorkel site. Both of us complete novices, we searched until we found a bay where lots of other people were in the water, bobbing around. As soon as we had our masks underwater, a veritable universe of fish and reef appeared. It was fascinating just to float and watch them go about their business, in all of their luminous colors. However, it was a chilly day and we couldn't stay in the water for too long. We warmed up by walking over some of the lava flows on the King's trail for a few hours.

For our last night in town, we went to dinner down in Ma'alea. Before dinner we had time to walk the beach at sunset.






A friendly beach dog



Whale tail



Evening lights in Kihei



Even though we had a spectacular month on the island, we were ready to get back home. After a long flight, with delays, we arrived safely. The cats greeted us warmly, and the Christmas cactus gave us a taste of the islands with it's lush blooms.