More Daydream Island (August 11, 2008)

Because Cara had to fly back to Sydney this afternoon, we stayed on Daydream Island and enjoyed the first day of warm weather on the island. After filling up on breakfast, we walked through the rainforest to the other side of the island for a round of miniature golf. The 19-hole course (and no, the 19th-hole was not a bar, unfortunately), had an Australia theme, highlighting various areas and events throughout local history. The course mocked us with its plethora of 2-par holes that were CLEARLY not easy enough to complete in two strokes and we laughed at the PG-13 hole descriptions, which included tales of outlaws, drunks and corrupt politicians.

We headed back to the room to change into our bathing suits and turned on CNN only to discover that Isaac Hayes had died (RIP, Chef), only one day after Bernie Mac’s death and a few days following Morgan Freeman’s car accident. While Cara prepared for another celebrity death to complete the trifecta, I determined that the three events were related and that Freeman somehow cheated fate, leaving him destined to avoid one brush with death after another ala “Final Destination.”

After a quick workout, I joined Cara for some quick beach time before her departure. While the island had a number of beautiful beaches to choose from, the one disappointment was that they are all coral beaches and covered with bleached-out coral, not sand. Despite this complication, we enjoyed the warm sunshine and basked in the beautiful view of the water.

As Cara jumped on the ferry, I went to the spa for a massage and then back to my room, where I learned that the value of the Australian dollar had dropped precipitously and now was trading with the US dollar at a ratio of 1AU:.88US. I quickly calculate how much this new exchange rate will save me and make a mental note to do some shopping before I leave. See kids, you DO use math every day!

I cleaned up, grabbed some take-out dinner from the café and headed out to the aptly named Lover’s Cove in order to watch the sunset. The moment would have been perfect if it hadn’t been for 1) my lack of a make-out companion and 2) the obnoxious kids trying to skip pieces of coral into the water. As soon as the sun set, I walked by the Christian Conference’s “Mocktail” Party and returned to my room to watch “The 40-year-old Virgin” on local television. About five minutes of the movie transpired before I realized that it was completely unedited, with every inappropriate, four-letter word pristinely preserved for all ears to hear. Here Americans are, still talking about “nipplegate” years after the fact and the Aussies can tune into their version of NBC and hear the f-word on a daily basis. Talk about how Aussies are not like us!