Day 3: Slapped by the sun

The plan was set before we even woke up in the morning; the beach we were going to was Po’olenalena. But before we hit the beach, I wanted to get a small 10 minute Tabata workout done. Something is better than nothing, right? After I did my circuit, we ate and then we headed to AJ and Tina’s favorite beach. The sand is so fine and soft and it has minimal visitors if you take the short trail to the right of the main beach; the end of this hidden side is also clothing optional.  Because it’s been almost two years since we have been to Maui we were concerned when we pulled into the overfilled parking lot that our beach was no longer a hidden gem. But after we parked on the road and walked around to our side of the beach we were ecstatic to see that there were hardly any people. We had another day of minimal waves, so I was able to go in for a while at the start of our day. Po’olenalena will usually have higher waves than other beaches so it’s a great place to start your day when the water is the most calm. I finished my first book, wasn’t the best book overall and started a new one that I’m hopeful will be better. We had earlier dinner reservations tonight so we relaxed at the beach until mid-afternoon and then headed back to our room to get ready for the evening ahead.

Tonight we chose to go to Kō at the Fairmont Kea Lani. We were excited to try this place because the restaurant is inspired by Maui from the way they decorated, to the locally sourced food, and the name itself translates to Sugarcane. The restaurant overlooks the pool, and at sunset they had a man dressed in native Hawaiian garb blow the conch. Kō is also participating in restaurant week, so we chose food options for that menu. The food was delicious, the lavender shrimp sauce was one of the best sauces I have ever had and the dessert (brown butter banana bar) was also excellent. However, the experience with the wait staff could have been better, and makes me question returning again in the future. The waiter was slow to take our order and to bring us our drinks (almost an hour) and brought AJ the wrong starter dish, and took even longer to correct it. With the price of the meal, I would expect both the food and the experience to be excellent. After dinner we explored the Fairmont grounds, and this hotel is HUGE! The grounds were nice, but their lobby area was beautiful. They had massive paintings and stunning wood sculptures and a Zen garden. It would be a fun place to chill and take in the views.

We had all gotten a little more sun than we thought, so we decided to aloe and have an early ending to the night.

Until tomorrow,

Mahalo