HHI 2023 Trip – Part 2 of 2 {Hudson’s, Beach Yoga, Beach Eats}

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

Diana and her niece doing 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

Bolt corgi on the beach boardwalk

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!

Bolt corgi digging in the sand at the beach at Hilton Head

Still, he did get some good beach QT in.

He loves digging shallow holes and then sitting in them. It’s so cute!

Diana and her mom on the beach under a beach umbrella

It was so lovely relaxing with my family and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Sandwich on the beach

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

Grilled cheese on locally baked sourdough bread with soup

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!

Locally baked sourdough toast with butter. Pandemic board game in the background.

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

Doing online courses at the beach house

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.

Lettering Basics class on Skillshare

I’ve been enjoying this Hand Lettering Basics course by Gia Graham on Skillshare.

Lettering practice on my iPad / Procreate at Starbucks

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

Fresh local fried shrimp plate at Hudson's Hilton Head, SC

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.

Bessie's famous peanut butter pie at Hudson's HHI

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

Trying on colorful clothes at Lululemon

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

Dinner
Sis and my BIL cooked some great meals. This was another family fave. Chicken karaage dinner plate – round 1. Def got seconds of this!
Homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

My sister also made my Just Right Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. These were such a lovely treat!

The Trip Home

Historic Country Store
All the traffic had us take some off-highway detours. I actually prefer the non-highway roads. They’re usually less stressful and you get to see cool things like this.

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!

Bolt Corgi in Charlotte, NC with the city skyline in the background

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!

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