Seafoam Palette and Thinking Beachy Thoughts

This seafoam palette of light blues and deep greens has put me in the mood for a trip to the beach.

Those who believe that vacation is a state of mind have clearly never been to an actual beach. Because I'm thinking hard about sunny beaches right now, but I'm still stuck in the state of New Mexico with snow falling outside my window.

Perhaps if I closed my eyes and thought reeeeally hard about the beach, when I open my eyes I'll be sitting on the deck of my beach house in Tampa. (Never mind that I don't own a beach house in Tampa.) Let me try it...

Nope. Didn't work. In the meantime, enjoy this beachy color palette.

Seafoam Palette

Happy Beachy Thoughts

When I was growing up, some of my happiest memories were made at my aunt's beach house on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Never mind that it was always about 150 degrees with 95% humidity. And the water was a cloudy brownish color, sometimes tinted with oil slicks. And the paths were paved with crushed oyster shells so you couldn't walk barefoot without singeing and/or lacerating your feet.

And there was no air conditioning in the beach house. And the gulf was usually either overrun with seaweed or man-o-war jelly fish.

This beach was not for the faint of heart. No gleaming white sands and lovely ocean breezes here. Just waves of heat emanating from the baked sand, and creepy crawly things along the unseen bottom of the ocean.

But we loved it. My cousins and I would run around for hours till we were exhausted, then we would scarf down a quick meal of my aunt's cold fried chicken and go back to playing.

(If cold fried chicken doesn't get your mouth watering, let me explain how this works. Leftover fried chicken magically gets even more delicious after it's refrigerated. And the Colonel's got nothing on my aunt. This chicken was manna from heaven and the stuff of family legend.)

While we ran loose like heathens all day, the adults played cards and fanned themselves on the covered porch, and drank lemonades, which I now realize were probably actually Margaritas.

That beach was an escape. It was far enough from home to be a once-a-year destination and we thought it was heaven on earth.

Now that I've seen a few other beaches, I realize that maybe it wasn't the most picturesque beach or the ritziest beach house, but nothing can take away from the fun times we had there, together with family.

In my memory, the water was as clear blue as the picture in this palette. The air as fresh as sunlight. And the beach as soft as talcum powder underfoot.

But it's to that murky hot beach filled with happy moments that I'm wandering in my mind today. Besides, 150 degrees and 95% humidity doesn't sound so bad right now!