Stephanie_Gibson's Blog

So as many of you know, I went on my first cruise with my sister, Melissa a few weeks ago. We went on Royal Caribbean to the Bahamas on a 4-night adventure. Before I continue, I want to say that this was my sister's first cruise as well, so we had no idea what to expect, other than what we'd heard from our friends and reading online.

The weather wasn't the best when we arrived in Cape Canvaveral...it was pretty overcast with a good chance of rain but it was in the low 70's. We toured the whole ship from top to bottom to check out all it had. We made the unfortunate mistake of requesting the second dinner seating (8:30 p.m.) since we figured we didn't want to rush around to make the first seating. Well, by the time 5 p.m. rolled around, we were famished!

The amount and kinds of food on the boat are just incredible. I've never seen so many types of dessert and assortment of fruit. Needless to say I gained 3 pounds (honestly!) but enjoyed eating tasty shrimp, fish and well yes, a few desserts!



Our first land destination was at Cocoa Cay. We woke up extra early and got the 2nd boat out. The island is beautiful...and of course so is the beach! We explored the whole island and then decided to relax on some hammocks near the beach. It was so peaceful!

Unfortunately our trip on the island was short lived - the captain was having a hard time anchoring the boat because of the wind, so they ordered everyone back onto the boat just hours after we arrived. We were disappointed, but spent a good bit of the afternoon in the hot tub enjoying the pool deck activities.

Nassau was exciting! We've been to Jamaica so we were interested to see how it compared. There are TONS of diamond shops, lots of crazy locals driving around and just a lot to see!

It so relaxing and I'm so glad we went! Next time though, I'd definitely get a room with a window!

So I am loving two "new" artists that I found a few months ago...both very different but so good!

Santogold - check out the song "Shove It." It's a combination of reggae, alternative and electronic. All of those genres are my faves. A large part of my family is from Jamaica, so any kind of reggae or music with it's influence is something i'd be interested in. Another good song on the album is L.E.S. Artistes. Tell me what you think!

MGMT - this of course would be more of the electronic stuff I'm also interested in. My favorite song on their album "Oracular Spectacular" is "Electric Feel." I think I love this band because to me, it's a modern version of U2, and reminds me a lot of one of my favorite songs of all time - "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Their album does have some 'explicit' material so that's my warning before you go listening to them!

Do you have any other good bands you could recommend? I'm always up for suggestions!

If you've never visited St. Augustine, now is the perfect opportunity. The whole city will gather tonight for the annual Nights of Lights Ceremony where the whole historic downtown area is laced with gorgeous white lights. The mayor will "flip the switch" to kick off the ceremony at 6:30 p.m. But before and after the switch, there will be live holiday music.

St. Augustine is so dreamy during Christmas time. The whole area is decked out from top to bottom with beautiful wreaths and decorations. All the horse drawn carriages are lit up as well and since it's chilly this year, it will make it seem a little more like it's time for the holidays!

Plus, you can even go ice skating - outdoors! - at the St. Augustine Ampitheater. I've never done it before but it's something I can't wait to try out!

If you can't make it tonight, the lights will be up until January 31, 2009.

You probably wouldn't guess by looking at me, but I'm a HUGE Jaguars fan. For almost the past two years, I've been to 90% of all the home games, bought merchandise, followed them online and on ESPN. We were ranked 5th going into this season because of how well we did last year...and then...

Well I don't know really what happened. I got a little uncomfortable during the Jags/Dolphins game and hoped this wasn't a sign of what was to come.

Then we lost to an 0-8 team which was really embarrassing. I unfortunately won't make it to this Sunday's game because they changed the time of it to 4:15pm.

I'll be hoping for some kind of miracle though as I watch from home...biting my nails off! I just don't want to believe that we'd throw it all away so soon in the season.