Maui Day 7 -- Tattoos and Windsurfers

We woke up in the morning sad to leave Maui.  We packed up all of our bags and left the hotel early in the morning.  The Powells and Perkins' went to the Maui Ocean Center.  Chris and I headed across the island to Paia where we had an appointment to get our tattoos.  We drove all over the island looking at tattoo parlors and were most impressed with Paia Tattoo.  It was super clean, the people were really friendly, and their prices weren't sky high.  Justin immediately got started on Chris' tattoo, the Aztec gold medallion from Pirates of the Caribbean.  The design is very intricate and without the detail, we knew it wouldn't look very good.  But Justin did a great job of reassuring us that it would look awesome -- and he was RIGHT.  Tania and I got started about an hour after Chris did.  She decided it would be easiest to hand draw the design on my foot to be sure that it would cover-up my previous tattoo.  She did a good job of putting my words into the exact design I wanted!  My tattoo took about an hour to do and was the most painful tattoo I've ever had -- partially because of the size and location of the tattoo, but also because my feet had gotten so beat up while searching for sea glass earlier in the week!  I am very happy with the outcome -- can't wait for it to heal up completely though.

We all ate pizza at Flatbread Pizza company in Paia for lunch.  It's a cool little restaurant where everything on their menu is organic and local.  Very cool.  Afterwards, we were looking to waste a few hours before heading to the airport.  We didn't want to get dirty, wet, or hot since we no longer had access to a hotel to clean up before making the trip home -- this severely limited our options on the island.  Our waitress recommended that we go to Ho'okipa beach to watch the windsurfers.  It was a perfect idea!  There were about 50 windsurfers in one small little area, and they put on quite a show.  It was really a great way to end our vacation.

So after a quickie dinner, we grudgingly went back to Kahului airport to begin our cross-country trek.  The Powells headed off to Kauai where they will be spending another 5 days.  This was such an awesome vacation.  We hated to leave.... but were a little anxious to get home to see our little boy, who turns 15-MONTHS OLD TODAY!! :)