In 1968 we took our first family trip to Hawaii. I loved surfing at Waikiki Beach and hanging out with the Hare Krishna singers in front of the old International Market Place in Honolulu. And I loved body surfing at Poipu Beach and gazing at the grandeur of Waimea Canyon on Kauai.
But where I really fell in love was at a crescent-shaped beach on the west coast of Maui called Napili.
We stayed at a small hotel on Napili Beach called The Mauian in that summer of ’68. It was a lovely, family-friendly spot with two-storey units right on the beach, with a shuffleboard court out front that’s still there and a small pool I hardly ever used and a relaxation room/screened in lanai that I’m quite sure I didn’t bother with at age 12.
Napili Beach, Maui. JIM BYERS PHOTO
That first visit was memorable in so many ways. I remember playing shuffleboard with my Mom and watching the wild mynah birds bounce around the surrounding lawn on their back feet, a trait that led my Mom to label them as “hoppitys.” (They’re quite common birds but I still smile every time I’m in Hawaii and see one of them hopping about). I remember my sister flirting with the teenage boys who hung around a picnic table and some palm trees along the beach. I also recall my Dad being none too pleased with the situation.
The four of us shared a room in 1968. I think my sister and I had twin beds and my Mom and Dad had a cot. One night in the pitch dark my Dad sat down on the side of the cot and it collapsed in a thud, sending my parents to the floor in a flood of curse words. Maybe it happened twice. Oddly enough, nobody can quite recall 50 years later.
The Byers 50 team prior to dinner at The Napili Kai Beach Resort’s Sea House Restaurant.
I remember having dinner one night at the Napili Kai Beach Resort, which I think then was called the Napili Kai Beach Club. It was the fanciest resort on the beach and they had a great restaurant and bar just inches from the sand, called The Tea House of the Maui Moon at the time. They used to do live shows at dinner, with children and adults singing Hawaiian songs and dancing the hula. I’m sure we’ve been back on every trip to Maui since, often celebrating birthdays or anniversaries or simply being together.
It’s now called the Napili Kai Beach Resort and it’s grown much larger. But it’s still low-key and lovely and the restaurant, now simply called the Sea House, is better than ever. The shows have moved out, and they now do Wednesday night Slack Key Guitar shows in a small pavilion in the back of the property. The shows feature Grammy Award winner George Kahumoku, who I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a couple times and also have been able to chat with one-on-one. He’s great, and his wife, Nancy, is lovely. George plays an incredible guitar in the Hawaiian slack key style, which means he can play rhythm and lead at the same time and make it sound like two or three instruments. He also sings and tells great stories, some of which might even be true.
A Napili Beach selfie with my sister, Christine.
The beach at Napili has more hotels and condos now than it did in the 1960’s, hardly a surprise. And it’s a lot harder to find a parking space if you’re not staying at one of the beachfront hotels or condos. But the sand is the same and the waves are the same and the views of Molokai are just as wonderful, with thick white clouds covering the mountain tops and small lights glittering at night across the channel.
There’s no place on earth I’d rather be. And I mean no place.
I’ve been to Maui at least 20 times now and my Dad and sister have been just as much. So, as much as we love the drive to Hana and the snorkelling down at La Perouse Bay and the upcountry towns like Makawao, we decided to stay put on west Maui for this two-day stay. We did manage a dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and a half-hour of shopping on Front St. in Lahaina so I could buy another t-shirt I don’t need. We also managed a couple hours at Whalers’ Village shopping centre in the beautiful Ka’anapali area, dining on crab wontons and other goodies under the trees at Hula Grill and watching a group of Chinese New Year dancers put on a show in the central courtyard. We also had drinks at Merriman’s, a fabulous restaurant that sits on a point between Napili Bay and Kapalua Bay and offers up tremendous ambience and sensational sunsets.
Jim, Christine and Bob Byers at The Mauian, 50 years after our first visit.
Other than that, we pretty much stayed put and enjoyed the beach at the Mauian. Somehow, I forgot to challenge my Dad or sister to a game of shuffleboard. But we swam in the bay and I did a bit of bodysurfing and went for a short walk and read a book under the shade of a palm tree. My sister and I chatted about old days and new days and gazed out at Molokai and looked for whales splashing in the blue waters offshore.
Before dinner on our second and final night, we opened a bottle of wine and sat on a small retaining wall next to the beach and watched a gorgeous sunset. We toasted my Mom and raised a glass to family and friends, and to the beauty of a Napili evening.
