Who else misses the old-school, lifestyle blog posts of the early 2010’s? If that’s you, then this post is for you! I’m sharing all about my trip to Hilton Head Island, SC in May 2023. Click here for part 1.
Teaching Yoga on the Beach
As you saw on my part 1 HHI travel post, I just graduated Yoga Teacher Training, so I did a TON of yoga on the beach. What I didn’t expect was for my 3 year old niece to want to join me.
She did a great job with many of the poses. And even joined me a couple more times.
The cutest part was that she called our beach house beach towels “yoga mats” for the rest of the trip.
HHI Beach QT
We spent a TON of quality time on the beach. I tried to take Bolt a couple times. He did a good job when the beach was less busy, but once the weekend hit, he was getting nervous with all the people around.
He’s actually pretty different from my previous dog, Bailey. Bailey was a ham who loved people. Bolt is more… “don’t take my picture.” lol!
Still, he did get some good beach QT in.
He loves digging shallow holes and then sitting in them. It’s so cute!
It was so lovely relaxing with my family and enjoying the beautiful scenery.
One of the family fave meals was sandwiches on the beach. Isn’t it funny that something so simple would be such a hit?
Perhaps it was the locally baked sourdough that took it over the top?!
Other Eats at the Beach House
We got multiple loaves of the most delicious sourdough while we were there. It’s from Hilton Head Social Bakery. We ate it plain, enjoyed it as toast, and made grilled cheese sandwiches out of it.
All options were so good!
One night I even opted to have sourdough toast instead of dessert while we played the board game Pandemic.
Pandemic is our family fave board game, though my sister and her hubby bring other options.
We’re trying to branch out more, so if you have any suggestions for board games we should try, let me know in the comments below!
Learning Hand Lettering – My New Art Hobby
If you aren’t on my email list (or don’t follow me on social – Insta / TikTok), you may not know that I’ve been SUPER into goals in the last year or two. I set and review annual, quarterly, and monthly goals on the regular.
One thing that has come out of all this analysis is a pull to up my creativity.
Growing up, I loved to do art. And it’s something that I’ve pushed aside since I’ve been too busy with my 9to5 and The Chic Life. #adulting
But no more!
I finally invested in a new iPad (that I’d been wanting for a couple years now) and immediately bought Procreate. Like, I literally bought the app at the Apple store before I left.
Whilst I’m interested in doing all kinds of art, from doodles to even trying painting, I’m starting small with hand lettering.
I’ve been enjoying this Hand Lettering Basics course by Gia Graham on Skillshare.
Here are some of my practice letters from a trip to Starbucks.
On this trip, I had a lovely routine of going to Starbucks in the morning and sipping my (new love) iced coffee whilst making art. It was so relaxing and fun and brought me a lot of joy.
It’s definitely helping me with reaching other goals while also adding some beautiful balance to my busy life.
Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks
One of the places my family loves to visit when we’re in HHI is Hudson’s. We LOVE their fried shrimp. They are seriously so delicious. The staff is wonderful. And the scenery is nice too since it’s right on the water.
From Hudson’s web site:
Hudson’s is the only restaurant on Hilton Head Island that has a working fleet of shrimp boats. Jeff and Skip Toomer are third generation shrimpers, and they dock at the restaurant to deliver the freshest locally caught shrimp. You might be lucky and see the process as you dine on the dock. Our local shrimp are sweet-tasting, succulent, and delicious. A good catch will bring in a haul of over a 1,000 pounds of shrimp.
Yay for supporting a local business while eating local too.
We’re usually too stuffed to get dessert. But as I was admiring Mr Hudson’s portrait, one of the team members mentioned there’s one of Bessie (who made the restaurant’s famous desserts) too.
I excitedly requested to see it, and then the team member asked if I wanted a slice of Bessie’s famous peanut butter pie to go. I couldn’t turn down such a kind offer, so I accepted and then shared it with my fam later in the day.
These small gestures are the reason I love revisiting my fave restaurants like Hudson’s again and again. I mean, I’d go simply for all the reasons already listed above. But kindness is like…the icing on the cake chocolate sauce on the peanut butter pie! 😉
Hudson’s we’ll see you next time!
Project Colorful Closet
As you may know, I’ve been wearing head to toe black clothes for a lot of my life, but especially so after my years living in NYC.
In the last couple months, as I’ve been feeling like the grip of years of severe burnout is finally releasing, I’ve been called to up my wardrobe game and start wearing more colorful clothes.
Enter Project Colorful Closet!
Basically, when I shop, I aim to not go for my easy/comfortable color of choice – black. Instead I aim to try on clothes in all colors to create a more colorful closet. Pink is preferred, and black is still welcomed with open arms too.
On this shopping trip, I went to Lululemon to purchase a sunshirt to protect the skin on my upper body. And ended up finding some cute hot pink workout /athleisure clothes to get too. I got this hot pink tank, skirt, and shorts. Plus a bright orange sunshirt too.
So happy to be adding more colorful clothes to my wardrobe.
More Beach Eats
My sister also made my Just Right Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. These were such a lovely treat!
The Trip Home
It unfortunately rained on the way home, and we ran into a TON of traffic at the start of the trip, delaying us by well over an hour.
Then we had one of the slowest meals I’ve ever experienced at a Cracker Barrel, which further added to the overall trip time. I’m talking 40 minutes before we got water. My sis and I have both worked in restaurants, so we could tell CB was short of staff and stayed as patient as possible. Luckily, CB got someone new to help us and all was well from there on out.
It did result in a long day, though. It felt like I was literally driving alllll day!
Needless to say, Bolt and I were very happy to be home in the QC. And most importantly, everyone made it home safely.
Despite the rough trip home, I felt super grateful for such a beautiful vacation and so much quality time with my family. Can’t wait to see where we go next! Disney? Kiawah? Somewhere new!?
More Travel & Lifestyle Posts
HHI 2023 Trip – Part 1 of 2 {Manifesting a Beach Trip, Chair Yoga}
I Got a Luxury Pool Villa in Thailand?! Evason Hua Hin | Thailand Trip 2018 Part 1
Blogger Tea Date and Asheville Hen Party Part 1
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Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed this lifestyle blog post. Haven’t done these (besides Part 1, of course) in the longest time, and it was so FUN to create this for you!