Hilton Head is on repeat as a vacation destination for us. We don’t usually make multiple posts for the same spot, but this trip was worthy of it’s own post as we enjoyed several “firsts”.
For this trip we rented an octagon-shaped Night Heron condo. We have stayed in Night Heron many times and enjoy the location, community pool, and wonderful, uncrowded beach. This was our first time in the one-bedroom condo. It was lovely with a screened in porch overlooking the forest and felt like our private little sanctuary.
On this trip we did something my mom talked about doing every year for 30+ years and never did…we finally went to Dafuskie Island. Our boat left from Harbor Town with about 10 passengers. Upon docking onshore we walked to our rented golf cart and set off. Dafuskie has a rich Gullah History and a visit to the Dafuskie Island History Museum was our first stop. We followed the museum’s map to visit multiple historical spots all over the island.
One more recent interesting fact is that author Pat Conroy (The Prince of Tides) was a teacher on the island in 1969 before being fired for refusing to use corporal punishment as discipline. John Cougar Mellencamp also has or had a house on Dafuskie.
In addition to the historical spots, we stopped for lunch at the Dafuskie Rum Distillery and had drinks and a snack at the Dafuskie Crab Co. Beach Bar while waiting for our boat back to Hilton Head. It was a fun outing and was nice to finally check it off of the bucket list.
This trip also included visits to several new-to-us restaurants. We had dinner at Benny’s Coastal Kitchen. The restaurant’s name honors the patriarch of seafood harvesting on Hilton Head, Benny Hudson. I’m assuming he was a relative of (or maybe he was) the J.B. Hudson who started the Hudson oyster factory in 1912. The oyster factory later grew into Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks, our long-time favorite.
Benny’s menu had several intriguing options including a whole fried catch with house-made tortillas, crab dirty rice and chimichurri sauce to make fish tacos. We also had some delicious hush puppies and a Brazilian fish stew (moqueca) made with coconut milk, tomatoes, peppers, seafood and Carolina Gold rice. We enjoyed all of our bites.
We enjoyed a fantastic meal at Crane’s Tavern, another first visit. Crane’s began in Philadelphia in 1933 and came to Hilton Head in 1999. Our prime rib and New York strip meals were fantastic and we will definitely return to this gem.
Nunzio Restaurant for Italian and Kenny B’s French Quarter Cafe for Cajun were also new discoveries and stand-outs. We did not take photos at Nunzio but the food was delicious and the service was very good. See photo below for Kenny B’s po’boy. Almost as good as what you will find in NOLA and the owner was very friendly when ordering at the counter.
Finally, no trip is complete without Hudson’s mud pie, Truffles blondie, a treat from Rita’s and an anniversary visit to one of my parents’ favorites, Charley’s L’Etoile Verte. We didn’t take pics but we also enjoyed a new ice cream spot (for us) at Coligny Plaza. We had been die-hard “The Ice Cream Cone” devotees since my sister and I were kids (a loonnngg time), but we are now in love with Frozen Moo…it is excellent.
Enough about food…we also enjoyed the Night Heron pool, the beach, a visit to Bluffton’s art galleries, Harbour Town, South Beach, and an alligator sighting. Oh, and the dogs got new outfits.
