It is convenient to loosely discuss or even define Maui's beaches in terms of sand, rock, and water. But the beaches technically consist of only sand and rock; the water is a garnish applied by wind and tide and the swells that originate a thousand miles away. 

Anyway, except for geologists or pedants, Maui's beaches are much more than the sums of their physical parts. They are places for walking, wading, marrying, playing, sunning, fishing. And for watching those who are walking, wading, marrying, playing, sunning, fishing. It seems indolent and sloppy and sentimental to suggest they must be defined in part as a state of mind, a mental construct resulting from a happy confluence of scenery, warmth, and comfort. But in thinking about the beaches and what they are, it is impossible to ignore the sense of bliss and peace that washes over the observer, at least on a calm, placid day. It seems unduly meager - churlish -  to say Maui's beaches are, after all, only sand and rock.

Rock and sand. Add a water garnish.  

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Light plays an important role, reflecting from the waves and from the skim of water after each wave arrives, energetic and frothing, then exhausts itself and retreats across the sand.
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Maui's beaches are places for walking, wading, marrying, playing, sunning, fishing.  

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Even when the walk seems oddly problematic.

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And even if the musician's biggest fan seems to be the musician himself.

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The beaches are sometimes also places for getting ready to be rained on.  

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