Last Wednesday, the Crowd Cow team closed the office early and drove out to Golden Gardens State Park, a beautiful stretch of beach on Seattle’s Puget Sound.

We’d invited our friends and families to come taste-test beef from our partner ranches, try some new burger recipes, and star in an impromptu photoshoot.

It had all the makings of the perfect Pacific Northwest barbecue: white sand, plenty of sun (no small miracle in Seattle), and the Olympic Mountains rising up clear and jagged beyond the water.

And the afternoon really did turn out great -- everyone went home with full stomachs and a slightly improved tan. But our grilling success involved some luck, and a little patience on the part of our guests. We’re going to share the beach-grilling lessons we learned, to help your summer adventures go off without a hitch.

Check the weather the day before.

Especially in Seattle. This is important. We could have very easily ended up with some very wet guests.

Got a big group? You’re gonna need more than one grill.

Hey, everyone at our party eventually got a burger. But I think they were grateful for the watermelon slices we’d put out for snacking. The rule of thumb is, 8+ guests = 2 grills!

Claim your picnic table early.

Stand guard. Take no prisoners. Fight to the death for your prime picnic table spot. (Don’t really.) But do give yourself plenty of time to get a good spot if you’re headed to a popular beach.

If using charcoal briquettes, light ‘em 45 min before you want to feed people.

Otherwise there’ll be a lot of waiting-for-burgers time. I’ll say it again: Thank goodness for watermelon slices.

And if you happen to be doing a photoshoot…

...have plenty of “throwaway” burgers on hand for your talent to eat, so they don’t gobble up all the photogenic burgers before your photographer has taken all her pictures. :)

From our table to yours, happy summer grilling! Take a look at some of the photos from our burger shoot. We'll be sharing more soon!