MAUI on my mind - Wailea Wonders
I travel frequently throughout the year and my unwavering favorite destination is Hawaii. After many memorable trips to Maui, it is time to write about it. You can return time and again and explore new areas of the island in Kapalua, Napili Bay, Lahaina, Wailuku (Maui’s county seat), Kihei, Wailea and more.
Here are 20+ experiences I have had in Maui over the past 20 years:
* taped in-flight videos for Hawaiian Airlines
* romped around a pineapple plantation
* stayed in hotels and B&B’s in Kapalua, Napili, Kaanapali, Lahaina, Wailuku, and Wailea
* dined in eateries for takeaway yummies, a spectacular noodle house in Wailuku, tasted the freshest sashimi and sushi, amazing luaus, home-cooked meals in friends’ homes, pampered with 5* cuisine prepared by the top chefs
* visited famed Chef James MacDonald’s O’o farm and picked ingredients for lunch
* taught cooking at the Maui Community College culinary program
* judged the Maui Onion Festival (Read on …)
It has been over ten years since the Four Seasons Resort opened, and I am surprised it has taken me this long to get back to the Big Island for my first stay there. Settling into my bungalow, this came to mind: “I can just live here. I don’t even have to leave the Resort and can be very happy.” Every day, there is a series of activities throughout the resort, including fitness walks, spinning, shell craft, yoga, ti leaf skirt making, sports stretch and ukulele lessons. You can do it all, or do nothing. I got quite a bit of exercise getting lost all over the property, but I never minded as long as I was not late for a meal, a meeting, or a massage. 
Now that I feel more comfortable about driving around Kona, or at least the areas I’m familiar with, I mosey along Ali’i Drive and stop at the Hale Halewai, a community center. Inside, mostly senior citizen volunteers offer complimentary classes in arts and crafts, such as basket weaving. I walked across the street to check out a farmers market.
Not too many years ago, the culinary highlight of a Hawaiian vacation was a boring version of the ubiquitous “surf and turf.”