God's Country

Happy Monday FUNday folks!! Hope your weekend was as good as you thought it'd be while you were finishing up your day at work on Friday! I always think about that... was it as sweet as I anticipated trying to get through those last hours at work?!? OF COURSE!!

Sailing along with our Maui trip onto Part IV, today I'll be introducing you to our trip to Kipahulu, or as the locals call it... God's Country. Seriously, no matter how many bazillion pictures I share with you guys, there are NONE that can truly capture how beautiful and peaceful this side of the island was for us!

By this time, our family had departed Maui to head home (wahhhhh), and it was the start to our Honeymoon week! The bestest news was that Mark's brother (Paul) and his wife (Kaloni or Loni) had decided (with much of our persuasion!) to extend their trip and they stayed with us for another week! They're newly weds too (married in December 2011), and never really did take a honeymoon, so what better excuse did they need to stay in Maui longer?! We did sooooo much that second week, I must break it down into multiple posts!

Let's get it crackin', shall we? First up are a few pics of our drive into the house we were staying at! We stayed our family's house (as they call it The Cariad), the most prettiest house on the island!

Oh my, the drive from the main road up to The Cariad was a tough one! It didn't help that our rental car was super low and close to the ground, WITH tons of food and luggage in the trunk! We made it a routine to get out of the car before the drive started to or from the house... Mark drove the unpaved way, while Paul, Loni and I walked and took in the gorg scenery! The rough drive of about a mile and a half road up to The Cariad was well worth it to get to this beauty!

Here are some snaps of what surrounded The Cariad!

One of the greatest things about staying on the island was the accessibility to fresh fruit, veggies, and herbs... right in your own yard!!

1. Limes / 2. Coconut / 3. Bananas / 4. Papaya

The Cariad also had their own garden of herbs and spices!

There were 3 floors in this beauty... First floor was the caretaker's spizzot, which was a cute little studio type area! The second floor consisted of a bed, restroom, outdoor bedroom (3rd picture from the left), and a neat-OH burrito patio that surrounded the entire floor.

Although there was a full on living area on the 2nd floor, there was no way Mark and I were separating from Paul and Loni!! Since The Cariad was in the middle of nowhere, it was a spook at night time, and we had other tenants (BUGS!!) visiting the entire time we stayed there! I don't do well with alone-ness and bugs!

The 3rd floor was the main living area, with 2 bedrooms, a restroom, kitchen, living room and full on library stocked with classics!! There were also so many artifacts in the house that made superb artistic pictures!

The best part of the third floor (besides the phenomenal views of the ocean!!) was the porch!! It wrapped around the entire floor, just like the 2nd floor's porch... and there were tons of sitting areas to enjoy the outdoors with the fam!

Say HELLO to Loni (my SIL) who enjoyed herself tons of reading time!

And now say HELLO to Paul (my BIL)!

The caretaker had a dog, which totes helped comfort us at The Cariad, especially since she totes reminded me of my Pop's dog at home!! Her name is Mele (MEH-leh), and she is the sweetest thing ever!! You'll see more pictures of her saving us in the water in a later post!

And the reason why we came to this awesome-ness house in God's country... my Grandpa Rocky's Memorial at his most favorite place to fish and just be!