Penguin Island and Such

So I had a great weekend at Penguin Island. I put some pictures up at www.australianadventure2.shutterfly.com. The house we stayed in was awesome. Had 10 beds, a nice kitchen, couches, a grill and a 2nd floor patio overlooking the water in the distance. We got there Friday afternoon and went shopping at one of the local stores. We packed the fridge with just hot dogs, hamburgers, cheese, and beer (sorry mom!). If that's not heaven, I don't know what is. I suggested we go to see the penguins Friday when it was nice, but no one listened to me. They are like an airplane and have an arrival time, and they usually come in around 6:00 pm. Friday would have been a PERFECT day because it was 70, sunny, and flat as glass. But we didn't go. We opted instead to go on Saturday when it was 50, pouring rain, and so windy you could barely hold onto the umbrella. Because so many penguins came in on Friday (1200) only about 600 came in Saturday. You couldn't take pictures because it's their "natural habitat," but I got a few postcards and could reach out and practically touch the penguins which was awesome. Earlier on Saturday we went to a wildlife park where we feed kangaroos, wombats, emus, and anything else they had. It was basically a fenced in field and animals ran at you to feed them. It was fantastic, and we all got some really cool pictures. I got attacked my emu's and also saw a kangaroo boxing match which was sick. Basically we just relaxed, hung out, cooked, talked, and drank the entire weekend. It was a great experience and everyone had an amazing time!

Just came inside from a little grilling action actually. We had lots of leftovers from this weekend that we needed to get rid of so I ate A LOT of hot dogs and burgers just now. I was manning the grill alone tonight, and I don't want to say I did a phenomenal job - but I did. I had a lot of pressure on me tonight. The lights were on, I was sweating. Had a big crowd out there watching my every move, judging my every flip. Sure, I fumbled a dog or two, but with mistakes come success. I was able to pull through in the clutch, running a great 2-minute drill towards the end in order to feed everyone one last time.

A few things about grilling here and in general: 1. I love it. All men love it. It's a rite of passage, something that goes back to thousands of years ago to the time of the caveman 2. The grills here are electric, so it's like cooking on a hotplate; kind of weird and a little difficult. 3. I love women (and hopefully they love me), but the girls here for some reason think they know how to grill. If you can't turn it on (which they couldn't - it was a BUTTON you pressed), then you can't use it. Ok, so maybe you read The Idiot's Guide to Grilling, but that still doesn't give you the right to tell me when the burgers and dogs are done! Example: Tonight, deep into my 2nd pack of burgs, all the girls start telling me "oh trust us those burgers are done, we can tell." FALSE. They are NOT done and you CANNOT tell because I put those on 3 minutes ago. You would think, after cooking 20 burgs, and after everyone saying they were great, that I would KNOW what I was doing. Apparently not. All the girls huddled around the grill, assessing how I was doing, giving me their opinion on when to flip things and when to add cheese. I wanted to stick the tongs in my eyes.

So please, for the love of God, all I ask is that you step away from my grill. Girls, if the food isn't done up to your standards, drink more. There's nothing a little beer can't fix.

Pictures: Me + Kangaroo; 'Roo; Wombat; Part of the house; View from the beach; View from the balcony