Let's Go to the Beach, Beach...

Turquoise 

Just so you know readers, I have been saving this color for several months. The reason is spring break...


Spring break was last week; most of you knew that already.  For spring break my family decided to go to the Bahamas!!

I have been stoked about this trip for a long time. I think I bored many of my friends to death by telling them for the sixteenth time that I was going to the Bahamas for spring break and that I was really excited.

We rented this cute little cottage in this little community on the beach.

This is a picture of the back of our house
Photo Courtesy of VRBO

The beach was a short walk down a path out of the back of the house.  The beach is kind of hard to explain, but colors is a great place to start...

I mean I had heard about how white the sand was and how blue the water was, and seen lots of pictures. I can tell you, seeing it in person and in a picture are two completely different things.  I was struck a little speechless (and sightless on account of the sun) when I first saw it!

Right into the water with me!

I know, reader, I keep saying it, but the water is an incredible turquoise color, it almost looks like someone dyed it. The sand is unlike any other sand I have ever seen/felt in my life. It is super, super soft, and warm. Did I mention it is also a brilliant, blinding, creamy, white color?  I was in heaven!  

Me and my brother on the beach
Photo Creds to Me

For my birthday,  we went on a guided kayak/snorkeling tour. This guy took us kayaking to this cute little island called Peterson Cay (pronounced "key").  It's actually the smallest national park in the Bahamas.  We dropped our paddles once we got there and put on some snorkeling gear he brought for us. We snorkeled for the rest of the morning. When we went back to the island he made us lunch! Then we had some free time and kayaked back to the mainland. It was pretty fun to be out in the middle of that turquoise water.

I would have more pictures to increase the jealousy factor but I blew it. I bought this waterproof phone case especially for this trip and it was working great until we got back from snorkeling and I opened it up to find that the inside was soaked. The camera on my phone is completely broken now... Whoops.

I really was immersed in turquoise for the rest of the trip... pretty much just beach days! It was really great.

Me and my brother on the beach in front of our house

 Photo Creds to my Dad

On my actual birthday we dressed in something other than a bathing suit and went to this garden down the road from our house. It was called the Garden of the Groves and it was really pretty, with several trees and plants that don't grow anywhere else. 

Garden of the Groves

After that we went home and the man that took care of our house, who is also a chef, cooked me a special birthday dinner!! It was so yummy!! Thanks Andrew!!!

Eating my birthday dessert!

Creds to my Mom

You are probably by now getting a little sick of hearing about my turquoise adventure, but I have just one more thing....

On our last day we went to Paradise cove, yes, another beach.  It was also, gorgeous, but the best part? There was a reef called Dead Man's Reef that you swim out to and snorkel! This wasn't just some seaweed and a couple of corals, it was like a full on reef! It was like Finding Nemo or something.  It was super cool! There were all sorts of fish in different colors shapes and sizes!

See a similarity?? Creds me

Creds here

I'll just share a couple of highlights. First of all were these turquoise parrot fish that we found that I thought would be perfect for my turquoise blog.

Some turquoise fish.
 Creds to Me

Then there were these freaky barracudas (that fish that killed Nemo's mom) that decided to band together to scare Sabine. Actually they didn't really do anything but there were like twenty of them just sitting there looking at us with their creepy little bug eyes. Ugh, they give me the shivers.

This is the one from Finding Nemo, I didn't get a picture of the ones we saw

Creds

Then whenever you swam in and out of the reef there was this one place on the way back to shore that like six or seven sea turtles liked to hang out. It was really cool to keep seeing them! There was even one that had these fish that were cleaning its shell attached to its back!

Here is one turtle

And another one 

Creds to me

The last thing that we saw was this manta ray! It was kind of far away so there isn't a really good picture but it was huge! That was pretty cool.

You can barely see it

Creds to me

It was really fun to be able to spend spring break and my birthday in such a cool place! I suspect you can figure out why turquoise truly is my favorite!

Mango Madness

^^ See what I did there?

The color for this post is

Mango! 
(it is like a combination of Orange and Yellow)

It is like March Madness for foodies, but not really. Well March is over and it is April now.

You know what that means? Well for one my birthday was last week (that is over spring break by the way. Yes be jealous).  More to the point, it is also a time when some of my favorite fruits come into season. I mean of course we can get any kind of fruit at any time of year, but we all know that it tastes better when it is in season!

I just ate like ten minutes ago and now I am hungry again!
Photo Courtesy of Therapy Works

Of all of the spring and summer fruits mangos are my favorite (if you couldn't tell by the title). I have been in love with mangos longer than I can remember. They are just so juicy and sweet! In fact I love mangos so much that it is making my mouth water just talking about them! I know they are in season, because they are cheaper and taste a whole lot better.

I was kinda wondering why things taste better when they are in season even though we can get them all year long. So I used trusty Google and looked it up. I was really disappointed, because Google told me that I was wrong and fruit doesn't taste any different. Well I think that Google is wrong, who's with me? ✋

Foods most definitely taste better when they are in season. Obviously these people have never, ever been to a farmers market!

A farmers market with all their fresh produce!
Photo Courtesy of Utah Courts

It is quite a special treat to finally be able to eat all of the delicious fruits and vegetables that I have been waiting for all year. Grocery store peaches, raspberries, strawberries, and nectarines have been forever ruined for me by farmer's market quality ones.

As I have said, (Mango Madness) my favorite fruit is mango. Mangos are not found in Utah farmers markets, but I am still very picky about my mangos and other tropical fruits.

Mangos are a spring fruit so the ripe, yummy ones are just starting to come into grocery stores. Let me tell you I am stoked!!!!!! And the biggest problem with me and yummy fruit???  Among other things I start to let my mind wander to all of the other tropical fruits I am desperately in love with: pineapples, kiwis, bananas, and papaya.

Some yummy tropical fruits
Photo Courtesy of Pictures For Ever

Disappointed with my Google experience but still kind of wondering what "In season fruit" is, I looked it up again. This time, I found an article about the health benefits of eating only in season fruit.

Apparently in some European countries such as Italy, the cooks and consumers refuse to cook with or eat food that has been shipped long distances. Produce is more flavorful the closer it is to its origin, as each step of the shipping process eke's out the natural flavors of the food. It isn't just about flavor. There are many nutritional and economical advantages to eating seasonal food.

Scientists in Japan have done experiments concerning the benefits of seasonal produce. They used spinach, which they found has twice the vitamin C when it is fresh as when it has been shipped long distances. The economic advantage is that most in-season produce comes from local farmers. Then the locals have more money and they spend more which contributes majorly to the economy!

The moral of this story is eat as much local food as possible, it is good for you!! Unless of course you don't like fruits and vegetables.  Then you can go eat as much McDonalds as you want, where nothing is in season.

This is apparently the "World's Largest McDonald's" (building or people??)
Photo Courtesy of Gary Wolff