Feb. 21, 2015---Wailea Coastal Walkway:
This morning I walked across the street from our resort to Kam 1 to check it out.  Curses----more rough waves and another surf advisory.  Only place possibly any good for visibility is East---long way to that beautiful park in Hana!   So I decided to not even try to see our colorful underwater friends today.  Instead, why not check out the colorful above water sights.  After all, in just a few short days it'll be back to drab brown everything.

  So I took a picture of a brilliant yellow hibiscus on my way back to our condo.

 Then we headed south.  Stopped at the little marina in south Kihei.  Cute little beach there.  Would probably be a great place for a family with little kids to hang out.

  More flowers!  We headed to the Wailea Coastal Walkway and spent about 3 1/2 hours wandering around in a couple different areas.  First we went to Ulua and walked north until the trail ended.

  No snorkeling with surf like this!

  how about another flower!

  Along the pathway was this painter.  I loved his work and even stopped to chat with him a bit.  His small paintings were $500-$800.  The larger one he was working on he was asking $1600 for.  Too expensive for me, but has me thinking about getting my paint brushes out again back at home!

  Eventually we drove over to Wailea Beach and walked both north and south from there.

  going north

  another favorite flower---Bird of Paradise

  Ken contemplating moving to Maui (I wish!)

 Ok, I got carried away with the ocean views, but it was absolutely gorgeous!

  and, yes, more flowers.

 and more waves

  and ocean views with flowers in the foreground

  even a bird.  Looks like in egret

  On our way back south along the trail, we stopped for a shaved ice.  It was excellent!

  the ice was so fine!  We got a pineapple/mango large one to share.  Maybe a little expensive at $8 for a large, but it really hit the spot.  We were also able to sit at a covered table and watch breaching whales.

 This is zoomed in quite a bit.  A couple of them put on quite a show for us.

  looking south over Wailea beach.  No snorkeling, but there were a lot of people playing in the water.

  I liked the way the sun was shining on the wave in this picture.

  looking north again.

  just north of Wailea Beach

  even a cute little garden.

  another view north past a bunch of resort chairs and umbrellas.

  heading south of Wailea beach

 another pretty flower.

  the colors of the water!

  another ocean view with flowers in the foreground.

  more flowers along the way.

  These cute little flowers - Naupaka - only grow half a flower.  Legend has it that lovers are separated forever, one banished to the mountains, the other to the beach.  As the two lovers separated, the naupaka plants that grew nearby saw how sad they were. The very next day, they began to bloom in only half flowers.

  By now it was time for lunch/dinner.  So we checked our coupons that Worldmark gave us and found one for CowPigBun.  It's by the new Maui Brewery, so it was a tough deciding which place to go to, but the 15% off coupon was the tie breaker.   It use to be a café serving breakfast and lunch in the building it's in.  There use to be a bunch of small businesses in it, but most of them moved out, so they changed to mainly a late night bar.  But they have several sandwiches and salads listed on their menu. 

  I got the House Burger on focaccia bread, arugula, some fancy cheese, mayo and a reduced balsamic vinegar.  I was shocked how good it was!  Probably the best burger I've ever had!!  LOVED the sweet taste of the reduced balsamic vinegar on it!  Their home made pork rinds were interesting, too.  I hadn't had pork rinds in years.

  Ken enjoyed his bar b q pork sandwich, too.

  Another view of the small inside area.  I think they have a large patio area, too. 

 Fed and full, we headed back to our room.  I worked on today's blog.  Finished up just in time to head out to find sunset.  At first we thought it was going to be too cloudy.  The clouds sure disappeared, but left enough to make a pretty nice sunset.  We went to the path on the north side of Kam 1.    This is looking back on Kam 1.

  One of the many pictures I took of the sunset.

  another one a little bit different.

  Back at the resort, we went straight to the pool.  Enjoyed another hour or 2 there.  I even went into the activity room and made myself a souvenir. 

 Another day without getting in the ocean.  It's becoming a theme.  If someone had told me this before I left home, I wouldn't have believed them.  In all the years we've gone to Kauai, we've never had this many days when we couldn't find a place to snorkel.  But it was a beautiful day to walk the coastal path!  The surf warning was lifted this evening, but I imagine it'll still be pretty stirred up tomorrow.  Only 5 more days to go!  Hope we get at least 1 more day of snorkeling!  2 years ago we were able to snorkel anywhere everyday.