Kangaroo?

After about five days of being "down under" I am starting to pick up on the "g'days" and "no worries" of the Australian accent quite well. After my day at the futuristic host family house and a good nights sleep, I woke up refreshed and ready to get my golf game on! Helen and Graham took me out to play on The Vintage, which is the same course my tournament is to be played on. Our early tee time was eased by the delicious breakfast that Helen made us. The course was a Greg Norman design and is also called Chateau Elan. The same vineyard that is in Georgia is also a partner to this course ironically. Even at warm-ups, I was excited to play this course because the views were incredible! My excitement was also heightened due to a birdie of the first hole : ) Then, to further add to my excitement levels, I saw some kangaroos on the third hole! From then on out, I tried my best to spot more. Before the back nine, I ended up not only seeing, but catching a whole family of kangaroos hop across the cart path right in front of me!

It was really fun to play with my host family. They were able to show me the ins and outs of the course, and I gave them a few tips as well ( which ended up proving fruitful for Graham as he went out and won a club competition the next day!). After the round, when Ginny and Dave arrived and we all enjoyed lunch. We then decided to go on some wine tours.

We visited two gorgeous vineyards, where we were educated on the different types of wine and how and under what conditions they are grown. I can't wait to get back to the states and be able to one up everyone on my wine knowledge.

We all then went back to the house and hung out by the pool. Later, Helen apparently had time to hunt our friends from the course, KANGAROO! Just kidding on our golf "buddies", but she did seriously cook kangaroo! I have to say, it was awesome and tasted like good 'ol American steak.

The next morning, Ginny and Dave and I went out to play another round of golf. During our warm up, we were greeted by about thirty kangaroos laying in the shade off to the side of the range. It was around 100 degrees outside, so we decided to just stick to nine holes and take it easy for the day. After our golf outing we went to an olive tasting, which were the best olives of my life ( easy victory since they were the first olives I have ever had haha). We also did a chocolate tasting and toured a few more vineyards. Topping off the evening we ate at a Japanese restaurant connected to one of the wineries. I decided to call it a night after the meal and headed back home where I was greeted by another player that was going to be staying with us. We had a quick chat about the fact that Australia has 80% of the worlds most killer animals in it. So we made rule: if you see something/anything moving, run in the other direction asap!

I better not see any spiders near my bed or I will FREAK!

Goodnight!