Day 4: South Maui Beaches

Today was a day of beaches. Vinny and I have opposite raccoon tans- since I wear my sunglasses constantly I have the rings of white around my eyes, while Vinny has rings of red, since he will never let me get the sunscreen close enough to his eyes to keep that part from getting burned. I blame my mom. She got sunscreen in his eyes once when he was little, and ever since he's been paranoid of having sunscreen near his eyes. Haha. 

Tiana is slowly adjusting to Hawaiian time. Today she let us sleep until 5:45a.m. Actually, I was too tired to wake up at all, so Marc got up with her (isn't that sweet), but because he is addicted to swimming, he made me get up at 6:15a.m. so he could go practice (not so sweet). Oh well. I enjoyed my coffee, did some homework, did more schoolwork with Vinny, and caught up on everyone else's lives on Facebook.

Once Marc got back, we set out for a day of exploring South Maui's beaches, since we had already seen West Maui. Well, Marc swam in South Maui on Sunday morning, but we hadn't really done the beach yet. First, we spent several hours at Kamaole I. Beautiful beach. Since I had heard a lot about how popular this beach is, and since it seemed to be right in the middle of town, I expected it to be crowded, but this must be the beauty of coming in October, because there were very few people on the beach. Vinny pretty much never left the water. He does his own version of body surfing that pretty much involves intentionally letting the wave knock him over and then letting it wash him on to the shore. He ends up soaking wet and with enough sand in his pants to build a sandcastle, but he loves it. 

Vinny took this picture.  <3 my baby boy.

Next, we hit 808 Deli for some yummy sandwiches, which we ate at Big Beach, which ended up being Marc's favorite beach of all. The water at this beach is jewel-like, very much like Southern Florida. I was not as in love with it as I expected to be, but only because it was a little bit crowded and the surf was kind of strong today. I went in and pretty much got my a$$ handed to me by the first wave I jumped into, so I was super nervous about watching Vinny at that beach. Hence... I was more concerned with him not drowning than with taking pictures.  :/

Finally, after a brief McDonald's run to get Tiana the "meh" (her word for milk) she had been begging for and a shopping break, we headed back out to the beach.

This time, Wailea Beach. I fell instantly in love with this beach and wished so, so badly that we had found this beach on Day 1. I wish we could have spent more time here. It is a smaller stretch of beach in front of the fancy Grand Wailea, which is a Waldorf Astoria hotel. I can hardly imagine paying the $350-$600 a night to stay in a basic room here, but man... you should have seen this place. Here is a picture from their website of their "activity pool," which we could see, because it is RIGHT on the beach.

Anyhow, while the resort pools and stuff are obviously just for the guests, the beach is public (as are all Maui beaches)... and amazing. The water is crystal blue and probably the warmest I have experienced so far on the island. We were there in the late afternoon, so the breezes were starting to come in, and it was honestly warmest in the water. The sand is perfectly soft as far into the ocean as I could walk, and sloped at the perfect angle. There were constant waves, enough to play in, but they were the gentlest waves ever. Even Tiana wasn't afraid of them and spent a lot of time joyfully playing in the water. 

After that, she tried to escape. Either the Outrigger canoes or the pool must have looked inviting, but boy does she make good time. We've taken to calling her our little sand crab because she is perpetually covered in sand, no matter what we do.