Growing up, my family and I would go to Hilton Head Island for many spring breaks. Hilton Head has always been one of my favorite places to visit. Not only is it Family Friendly, but it is also Pet Friendly. There are so many awesome things to do and see there. Once I found out that Eric has never been to Hilton Head I knew we needed to go. Randomly one Saturday night we were talking about getting away for a few days and wanted to go on a vacation. Hilton Head popped into my head since we are only 2 hours away from it. Eric mentioned that maybe we could possibly just sleep in his car and go for a night. I was very desperate to leave our apartment since I had cabin fever, so I agreed to the idea. The next morning we woke up and packed all of our belongings needed for our 24 hour trip. After the car was cleaned out and our things were packed we decided to start our drive up to Hilton Head. During the drive up there so many fun ideas popped into my head that we could all see and do. Based on the GPS our arrival time would be around dinner time, so we looked up places to stop and grab some food at in Bluffton. I decided to get food from this restaurant that I ate at a few years back called Chow Daddy’s. Eric chose to get some food from Panera. After we ate our food we got back on the road and headed to Hilton Head. Once we arrived onto the island we stopped at a skatepark for Eric to skate around at.
We knew that Cleo would be extremely hyper from the car ride so I looked up dog friendly things to do in Hilton Head. Surprisingly, there were a good amount of dog friendly things to do. What caught my eye was that they have a dog park, so we knew that was a must. Once we left the skate park we went to the dog park in Chaplin Community Park. The park had a good sized dog park. We let Cleo play at the dog park for a little, and we searched up places we could stay the night at.
Our main choices were Sams Club and Walmart. I looked up online to see if we would stay the night at the Walmart, but online it said we needed to ask someone who works at that specific Walmart. We decided that Walmart was our best option, because Walmarts are known for overnight parking. Specifically that Sunday night it was cold as can be, so after we let Cleo play we drove to a Dunkin Donuts to get some hot chocolate. After, we drove around just exploring the island. From off the road I saw a small shopping complex that was all decorated for Christmas. Personally I love Christmas lights so we pulled into the complex to check it out. The shopping complex was called Shelter Cove Towne Center. We parked the car and walked Cleo around the complex to look at the lights. We spent maybe an hour or two just fascinated by the lights.
We walked Cleo one last time and headed to Walmart. Once we pulled into the Walmart parking lot I noticed that this Walmart was extremely different than the other Walmarts I’ve been to. It had a HUGE parking lot in front of the building and one that wrapped around to the other side of the building. We drove to the side of the Walmart and saw a camper and a few other vehicles parked that looked like they were staying the night also. We backed our car up to a wooded area and got settled in. We brought blankets, food/water, thick clothes, a sleeping bag, and Cleo’s bed from home. We laid Cleo’s bed down near where our heads were going to lay.
Sadly, we only brought one sleeping bag so I let Eric use it. Once we were all ready for bed, I laid down and went on my phone for an hour or so. I started to get uncomfortable. My hip was sore from the pressure against the floor of the trunk. The night before our trip I was so excited so I had a hard time sleeping. So at this point I was exhausted and extremely uncomfortable. My legs were squished up against the back seats and Cleo was laying on/beside me. We could tell that Cleo was having a hard time sleeping since she was restless. I told Eric that we should try to find a hotel that accepts dogs and would maybe allow us to stay since we are underage. By the time I found some hotels it was 1 or 2 am, and Eric began calling the list. One by one they said no because of our age. I started to get sad since nowhere was allowing us to stay, but I saw that Red Roof Inn’s may accept dogs and people under 21 to book a room. We packed up the car and drove to Red Roof Inn. I walked in and began the check in process. The front desk lady asked for my drivers license, and my heart started to sink. She said that she was so sorry but I needed to be 21 to book a room. She offered to look up some hotels for me which was greatly appreciated, but nowhere accepted anyone under 21 to book a room. My biggest fear at that moment was that we were just going to have to head back home to our apartment. I knew that Eric was so excited for our adventures the next day, so I decided to rough it out and sleep in the back of his car. We drove back to Walmart and got settled in once again. It took me another hour to fall asleep. Thankfully, once I fell asleep I stayed asleep a majority of the night, I maybe woke up once or twice.
In the morning I woke up to vehicles driving by our car. I checked my phone and it was 7 am. I let Eric and Cleo sleep a little longer, so I spent my time figuring out what we were going to eat for breakfast. After searching, I remembered that there is a great restaurant near the Marina that serves breakfast and lunch. The restaurant was called Palmetto Bay SunRise Cafe. I ate at the restaurant many times with my family, so it was almost a tradition. Once Eric woke up I let him read over the menu and we decided that’s where we were going to eat. We packed up and drove over to the restaurant. Eric went in and placed our order while I waited in the car with Cleo. After he got our food togo we drove closer to the marina and parked. We fed Cleo her food while we ate ours. After we all ate our food we went back to the dog park for Cleo to let off some steam. She played with three dogs, all of which were super friendly and different sizes.
Cleo played for an hour or so then we drove down to Coligny Beach. Coligny Beach is a huge beach with an easy accessibility. We were all super tired from barely getting any sleep so we only spent a couple of minutes there. Eric wanted to go to the skatepark one last time before heading back home, so we went. After the skatepark, we decided it was time for us to go back home. There were many things that we didn’t have enough time to do. We will definitely be heading back to Hilton Head for another vacation.
