Beach Near Kekaa Landing Pier, Visit to Westin Resort, Maui Fruit Truck, & Aloha Mixed Plate

Hawaiian Family Vacation Day 5 – Maui

Date: February 22nd, 2026

We wanted to check out a different beach, so we packed up our beach gear and a wagon and headed north. On our way to the new beach, we drove through Lahaina where a bad fire swept through 3 years earlier. You could still see plenty of evidence of the wild fire as they continue to rebuild their town.

We found some public parking near the Kahekili Beach Park. We started walking south along the Kaanapali Beach Walk pulling our wagon of snorkel gear, beach chairs, and snacks. Mattix thought he saw some dolphins swimming just off the shoreline but the rest of us didn’t make it in time to see them. I do think we could hear them amongst all the whale noises when we were snorkeling though. Let me know in the comments if you think the sounds in the video are all whales or if there are some dolphin sounds sprinkled in there too.

When we first arrived at the beach, the weather was beautiful. It was around 75 degrees, the sun was out, and there was a nice, warm breeze. We could see many whales breaching and spraying in the distance. They were almost everywhere we looked but their plumes were a lot more difficult to see against the white clouds and sky than if you were higher up and the spray had the ocean as a backdrop.

Mattix and I were first up to go snorkeling and we headed straight for the Kekaa Landing Pier which was a short walk from where we set up on the beach. As soon as I put my head under water I saw a small sea turtle gliding along the ocean floor. We followed it for a bit then directed our attention to the rocks and coral that were just off of the pier. There were a couple of people fishing off the pier, so we had to be conscious of where they and their lines were but there was plenty of room for us to explore without us disturbing them. I really enjoyed snorkeling next to the pier. We saw many of the same types of fish that we saw at Kamaole Beach, but here you could really hear the whales and dolphins singing the entire time (listen in the video below).

I knew that Black Rock was a bit further south from the pier and I thought we could snorkel our way there and maybe even jump in from the rocks but as we turned the corner by the pier, we felt like we were getting stung or bitten by something. We didn’t see anything on or around us but it was enough for us to turn around and head back to shore. I later researched what it could have been and believe we were getting stings from tiny, nearly invisible larvae of thimble jellyfish or sea anemones. Google said this is sometimes called sea lice. The stings didn’t hurt as much as they were annoying, a lot like the noseeums that bite in the summer months back in the Midwest.

Later, Jill and I went snorkeling in the same area and made it a little further around the pier since the fishermen weren’t there anymore. To our surprise, as we approached the stream dumping into the ocean, the water clarity went way down. It wasn’t cloudy as much as it was “wavy”, almost like what you would see on a distant blacktop on hot sunny day. When we were on our way back to shore, we ran into a guy that was going scuba diving. We told him about the odd water disparity and he informed us that brackish water almost always has a low visibility near the top, but if you get lower it’s perfectly clear.

When Jill and I honeymooned on Maui 20 years prior, we stayed at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa Ka’anapali. We had a lot of fond memories from being there and wanted to walk through for nostalgia sake. We weren’t sure how far of a walk it was, but started heading down the beach walk to see if we could find it. It ended up being a bit further than we realized, but we found it and ducked on to the property from the beach, sheepishly hiding our wrists to prevent someone from busting us for not having wristbands indicating that we were guests at the resort. We took a short walk along the pool area and found the parrots near the coy pond with flamingos, which brought back one of our favorite memories from our honeymoon…

The memory: We met a couple on our Haleakala biking excursion that was staying at our same resort and decided to go out to dinner with them. After a few (maybe a few too many) drinks and a conversation about the flamingos near the lobby, the female half of our new friends thought it would be funny if she tried to pet one. So when we returned to our resort, she started walking out into the pond towards the flamingos, calling at them. When security came, she pretended to not speak english and called out for her “American Husband”. To this day, I sign most of my love notes and cards to Jill with “Your American Husband” as a reminder of that hilarious night.

We didn’t stay at the Westin long since we weren’t technically supposed to be there and it was starting to rain. On our trek back to our beach setup, it started pouring. We walked for about a half hour in the rain without an umbrella. When we returned, the rain let up and the sun came out again. Mattix and I threw around the football for a bit before we packed the wagon up and headed back to our parking spot. If you are curious what Charlie had done that whole time, she stayed in her happyplace, mostly laying in the sun listening to music.

Charlie had her eye on the Maui Fruit Truck that we drove past on the way to the beach, so we stopped there for some delicious fresh fruit. A friend of ours also had a favorite beer that he found when they were in Maui and it appeared that Aloha Mixed Plate served it, so we slid in for an appetizer and some drinks.

On the drive back, we saw several more whales off the Maui coast and stopped at the Papawai Scenic Lookout to get a better view. It was well worth the drive to see a different part of Maui and reminisce about our honeymoon.