How to have a perfect day on Maui

We’ve returned to Hale Pau Hana, a favorite spot of ours on Maui, to celebrate my mother’s 75th birthday.

This is a special place for us. We’ve been coming here on and off for the past 40 years. Hale Pau Hana is uniquely placed in Kehei between Kamaole Beach I and Kamaole Beach II. It is one of the few condos in Kihei located on the beach side of busy South Kihei Road. It has everything you want and nothing you don’t. Small enough to feel exclusive, yet remaining unpretentious. Great snorkeling (with turtles and rays) and boogie boarding right out front on a beach of fine Maui sand. But offering enough shade for extended periods of book reading under a palm of your choice, with a nearby pool to cool off in if the drier side of Maui gets too hot (and it is HOT today – over 90º with 82% humidity). There are many stores (grocery and liquor), shops, restaurants and food trucks, and shave ice all across the street. Everything you want and nothing you don’t.

We have this Hale Pau Hana thing down pat and today we followed our typical agenda for a perfect day in Maui.  We started with breakfast on the lanai with Maui Lovebirds and a sunrise over Haleakala before heading to the beach for some morning snorkeling.

Sunrise over Haleakala

Sunrise and calm surf on Kamaole Beach II

Papaya and Avocado

Breakfast w/Lovebirds

We had a lazy mid-morning sunning ourselves, cooling ourselves in the ocean, reading books, trying out a skim board, and following a turtle that came close to shore.

For lunch, we walked to Kinaole, a nearby food truck, for chicken katsu, pulled pork sliders, and some coconut shrimp before hitting Beach Street, a local shave ice shack, for dessert.

Kinaole food truck near Kamaole I

So much awesome!

Waiting for our food order

Chicken katsu and pulled pork sliders

Tawny’s Shave Ice: Ice cream on the bottom, 1/2 tigers blood 1/2 lilikoi with “snow cap” (sweetened condensed milk)

My shave ice: Pineapple, Li Hing Mui with Ice Cream, Azuki Beans, Haupia and Lihing Mui Powder

Our afternoon started with Tawny’s preparing her most excellent Mai Tais while I made mango gazpacho for dinner.

Strong Mai Tais

Mango gazpacho

My sister and her kids arrived in the late afternoon and we all swam until the Portuguese Man-o-War announcement drove us all from the water. We saw a few dead ones on the beach and thought better about returning to the waves until the winds shift in a day or two.

We had dinner on the lanai at sunset and tried to keep cool as the trade winds subsided with the sun.

Our evening entertainment was a praying mantis that came to visit our lanai.

Goodnight!