Friday, July 06, 2012

Maui -- Day 4 6/9/12

Hey.  Why’s it so dark?  I woke up Saturday morning thinking that it might be about to rain.  Then I looked at my watch.  5:10 a.m.  Oh.
This reminded me that when I was in Oahu, it rained every day even if it was just for a few minutes.  So far every day in Maui has been gorgeous.  Maybe April is the rainy season and the skies clear up by June. 
I went to the Cinnamon Roll, a shop in walking distance from the hotel.  They make these ginormous rolls fresh every morning and load them with whatever you want (pecans, frosting, sprinkles, etc).  Again, not diet food but it was certainly tasty though I could only eat half of it.
Today’s beach stop:  the gorgeous Wailea.  Wailea is the next neighborhood to the south of Kihei, too far to walk but a short car trip.  I passed by a bunch of very fancy schmancy homes until I got to the nice open air mall that houses the Wailea shops. 
Walked around there for a minute before finding a cherry spot in the narrow beach access parking lot. 
This beach, like Ka'anapali, has a bunch of hotels fronting it except way more fancy.  The Four Seasons and the Grand Wailea are here as well as some condos.  I can understand how the higher end hotels are here; Wailea is a really nice stretch of beach.


The trail that leads past the hotels has some really pretty manicured lawns and trees.  There are signs that point out some of the flowers that grow there as well as signs warning against venturing off the trail into protected areas.  At various points the trail winds around rocky areas that have steep dropoffs.
Some of the same ammenities from Ka'anapali are here as well; restaurants, pools, and sea activities.  One of the restaurants is named after the impossible to pronounce state fish: the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.  Yeah.  That's not a typo.  They just call it Humu for short.  It's an expensive seafood restaurant in case you wanted to know.
I saw the staff cleaning up the meeting area for the luau they hold 3-4 nights a week.  I considered going since this is a much safer option than trying to navigate from Lahaina back to the hotel at night.  Still hesistant to make any solid plans though since I'm usually comatose by around 7:00.  Not sure if I could last through the evening.
Just walking along, I spotted this amazing church behind The Grand Wailea.  Surrounded on three sides by a koi-filled pond, it looked like the perfect place to get married or renew vows for a religious couple.


Personally I'd rather get married outside on the beach but it's still a nice option for someone else.
After gettting a good look around, I sat on the beach for a while before making my way back to the mall.  It's finally dawned on me that I'm running out of time.  I wanted to get in some water activity before leaving.  I'd spoken to the hotel concierge about biking Haleakala but decided against it.  He mentioned ziplining and snorkeling as alternatives which both sounded interesting.  Never done either of those things so I decided to get some info on snorkeling at the dive shop in the mall.  The lady there was very helpful in signing me up to board the Kai Anela on Monday to snorkel off of Molokini.
From Wailea I headed to Kahului to do some more shopping, which included a trip to freaking Old Navy.  I call it that because I have a serious grudge with the place.  I had avoided it for years because I knew that any store that sold size 0 and extra small was not the store for me.  Then I made the mistake of trying  something on one day and realizing that it actually fit.  That store has taken quite a bit of my money since then, as it has spectactularly enabled my tank top habit for years. No tank tops this trip though.  I went in specifically to find a dress for the luau since I hadn't brought anything dressy with me.  Once I found a nice black one, I went on about my business.  Now, if I could just quit that store altogether ...
A quick stop to Kmart for some supplies and a slice of pizza and I was back to the hotel for the night. 

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