In Key Largo, it’s all about the world beneath the sea. Key Largo has been dubbed the dive capital of the world — with good reason, since it draws underwater enthusiasts from around the globe to experience its diverse, fascinating coral reef ecosystem alive with sea life and unique corals.

Something's fishy about this jack-o'-lantern -- it's being carved underwater! (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

It’s the home of America’s first undersea preserve, 50-year-old John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park — and to one of the largest vessels ever sunk as an artificial reef, the 510-foot Spiegel Grove.

But Key Largo can boast another oceanic claim to fame: its weird and wonderful array of lighthearted underwater events.

Planning to carve a pumpkin for Halloween this October? Do it underwater in Key Largo.

Surrounded by spectator fish and a coral reef backdrop, divers will plunge beneath the sea to transform hollowed-out pumpkins into jolly jack-o’-lanterns during the annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest — set this year for Sunday, Oct. 16.

Contestants submerge to a depth of less than 30 feet with only their creative imaginations and dive knives as tools. Prizes, including a dive trip for two, await the top three pumpkin sculptors at the contest presented by Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort.

Santa listens to an undersea denizen's Christmas list in the waters off Key Largo. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Craving a good poker game? Experience it underwater in Key Largo, where the most popular “suits” are wetsuits. Generally in late fall, watched by goliath grouper and other marine species, costumed pirates in scuba gear play free-wheeling hands of five-card stud beneath the sea. Their wacky Underwater Pirates Poker Tournament is part of the annual Key Largo Pirates Fest.

But pirates aren’t the only costumed characters known to immerse themselves in island waters. Want to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus before he embarks on his round-the-world sleigh ride? Look for him (where else?) underwater in Key Largo.

The jolly red-garbed guy appears every year before Christmas, seeming perfectly at home in the underwater environment. Beneath his bushy white beard, he looks a little like Captain Spencer Slate of Key Largo’s Atlantis Dive Center.

It's "egg-stremely" unusual to see an Easter bunny beneath the sea ... except in the waters of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. (Photo by Bob Care, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Wearing scuba tanks and a dive mask, Santa glides over shipwrecks and reefs in Key Largo waters, offering holiday wishes to fishes as part of a fundraiser for a local children’s charity.

And let’s not forget Easter, when a long-eared bunny hides brightly colored eggs for eager egg-lovers to find — you guessed it, underwater in Key Largo. Captain Slate typically hosts the annual Underwater Easter Egg Hunt shortly before the holiday.

Donning an extra-large bunny suit and dive gear, he hides eggs (real eggs decorated with non-toxic colorings, to prevent any negative ecological impact) in a secret location on one of the Keys’ pristine shallow reefs. Egg-seeking divers hop aboard the Atlantis boat, head to the secret site, and submerge in search of the sunken hard-boiled treasure.

Unlike the above, there’s one underwater event planned for Key Largo that didn’t quite happen: a world-record bid for “extreme underwater ironing.”

Florida Keys ironing fans are ready and waiting, with their equipment prepped, for a new world-record attempt.

Yes, ironing. In 2010, event organizers hoped to draw approximately 100 divers to perform the unpopular domestic chore — ironing items simultaneously within a 10-minute time limit — at a shallow dive site in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

They were trying to break a world record held by an 86-person group of British scuba divers (and by the way, participants had to provide their own ironing boards and irons).

Sadly, a forecast of rough seas and strong winds forced the event’s cancellation — even though many ironing fanatics wanted to “press” on.

For additional wrinkles on Key Largo’s wonderful underwater world, click here.

Topics: Environment, Events, Highlights, Key Largo, Local Color, On the Water, Quirks, Voices Main Archive

Sitting by the pool with my laptop at the Raven in New Hope, Pennsylvania, I am reminded that Key West’s “Dog Days of Summer” are far from Dog Days.

It's hard to tell what intriguing ensemble the lovely Mitch Jones will dream up next.

For example, this week we unwind after the sixth annual Tropical Heat Key West party. It’s scheduled for the third weekend of each August — and as in the past, a great time was had by all. Between the laughs watching comedian Paul Williams, and the outrageous outfits of Q. Mitch Jones at 801 Bourbon’s “Drag Queen Bingo,” we frolicked at pool and fetish parties, a minimalist toga party, and late-night garden parties at the Bourbon St. Pub. Put the date on your calendar for next August!

This week kicks off the campaign for king and queen of Fantasy Fest, with crowns going to the candidates who raise the most money for the Keys’ AIDS Help organization. I worked with AIDS Help during my first years here, and coordinating this event was one of the more exciting things we did. The candidates host fundraising events throughout September and October, with the coronation scheduled for the first Friday of Fantasy Fest.

Fantasy Fest's annual Masquerade March, the locals' favorite event, draws revelers in costumes that dazzle, delight and sometimes defy description.

Fantasy Fest Tuesday brings the Key West Business Guild’s 29th annual Headdress Ball. Take a virtual trip to Fantasy Fest with British travel writer Peter Tatchell, and then come on down to enjoy the offbeat festival for yourself. There are rooms available.

Just around the corner is the 25th annual Womenfest. Join single women, couples, and friends as they celebrate their lifestyle on our welcoming island. Attendees can take a dinner sunset cruise while being entertained by the rock group Sister Funk or attend a riotous three-woman comedy show titled  “Curiously Strong Comedy” with Gloria Bigelow, Julie Goldman, and Jackie Monahan at the historic San Carlos Institute. Women from all corners of the world meet here to bask in the sun, snorkel, parasail, party, and dance the week away. (I get to attend some of the events too, so look me up!)

After the girls leave, the bikers arrive for the 39th annual Poker Run. This event brings some 10,000 motorcyclists who traverse the Overseas Highway’s 42 bridges to reach our island.

Womenfest brings singles, couples and groups of women to enjoy Key West's welcoming come-as-you-are atmosphere.

This diverse group has a great time with the welcoming locals, and Duval Street becomes an amazing promenade of bikes and people of all sizes and shapes (and attire!). I usually can be found with my “hardly Harley” backed between a couple of hogs around the Tree Bar.

Our furry Bear friends, cubs, and otters will follow the bikers and add yet another colorful splash to Key West. The annual Bear Fest event offers over 18 parties and events and affords great opportunities to frolic with your favorite bears. My best friend Jeffrey “Bo Derek” of Johnstown will be down for his first Bear Fest.

I plan to be here prowling around the events and join the bears for the “Carnivale for Carnivores” Saturday night at our authentic Brazilian churrascaria  Braza Lena.

I’m not sure Winnie the Pooh would be ready for this weekend, but it’s another great example of the variety of things to see and do in the Florida Keys.

Topics: Events, Festivals, Key West, LGBT, Local Color

Key West is the kind of place that can turn a vacationer into a resident in a life-changing instant. Talk to a group of locals, and chances are a handful of them will tell you they came down to spend a week or a season, or take a break for a few months … but, somehow, they got hooked on the place and never left.

Upon my arrival in Key West, I was stunned to see palm trees seemingly everywhere. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Take me, for example.

When I first came to Key West, I was a naïve 20-year-old Minnesota girl in a Salvation Army fur jacket (which I discarded as quickly as possible). I flew down to this exotic and then-unknown place to meet my Minnesota boyfriend John, who had friends living on the island, to spend a couple of months thawing out after a miserable Minnesota January.

John had to take a side trip to New York, so we didn’t fly together. I emerged from a tiny plane operated by Air Sunshine (also called Air Sometimes for its erratic on-time record) into a third-world airport and a light-drenched landscape.

The taxis outside the airport were startlingly pink, and there were palm trees EVERYWHERE. I gawked out the cab window during the entire drive to John’s friend Wally’s house, where we were supposed to stay.

When the pink taxi pulled up to an old wood-frame house, I jumped out eagerly, ran up the porch steps and knocked on the screen door. “Hello?” I called.

A glorious old frame house was my first temporary "home" on the island.

The door was opened by Willie Nelson. (Okay, it wasn’t really Willie. But it could have been his dark-haired twin.)

“Hey there,” he said, his eyes slightly glazed.

“You must be Wally,” I responded brightly, trying not to stare. “I’m Carol, John’s friend from Minnesota. Is he here yet?”

Willie/Wally looked at me. “John?” he repeated. “Hey, how’s he doing? I haven’t heard from him in six months!”

Apparently John had neglected to tell Wally we were coming — OR staying with him. But since this was Key West in the late 1970s, five minutes later Wally had offered me his spare bedroom to stay in until John showed up or I figured out what I wanted to do next.

Actually, John DIDN’T show up. But that didn’t matter because, 48 hours after my arrival, I knew perfectly well what I wanted to do next: live in Key West for the rest of my life.

This classic Jimmy Buffett album cover captures the Key West waterfront in the 1970s.

The decision wasn’t reasoned, or even particularly rational. It came from my bones.

Admittedly, my new home was a fascinating place. In the late 70s and early 80s, shrimpers in white rubber boots ruled the island’s waterfront, and lobster and fish were free for the catching.

In those days, there wasn’t much money in Key West. But nobody noticed unless they went to the mainland, and people didn’t go to the mainland very often. Living was an impromptu affair and the pace was slow; Duval Street was so empty on hot summer afternoons that dogs drowsed undisturbed on the blacktop.

The Victorian houses in Old Town, the ones that stand lovingly restored today, were ramshackle and rundown, their paint peeling or absent altogether. But their clean, proud lines made them gorgeous anyway, and the hibiscus and bougainvillea blooming around them were all the adornment they needed.

Now, as in the late 70s, exuberant blossoms add a lush beauty to Key West homes.

Back then, Key West was a haven for adventurers — from treasure hunters seeking shipwrecked Spanish galleons to the spiritual descendents of Prohibition rumrunners. Everyone seemed to know they were living at the edge of a continent, in a renegade but strangely innocent world.

It was pretty heady stuff for a naïve Minnesota girl.

Fairly quickly, I was “adopted” by a group of longtime Key Westers — writers and shrimpers and pirate bartenders. Their passion for the island was enduring and true, and for some serendipitous reason they decided to share their stories and their lives with me.

Today, Key West and I have both changed a good bit, but my love for the place is stronger than ever. In essence, those old friends who opened their world to me earned an unspoken promise in return — that I would cherish that world like they did.

And you know what? It’s never been a hard promise to keep.

Topics: History, Key West, Local Color, Quirks, Voices Main Archive

Ever since marine researchers discovered dolphins just might rival humans among the world’s most intelligent mammals, people have been fascinated by the lively marine creatures.

At Dolphins Plus, dolphins Bob (left) and Jessica provide an affectionate Keys welcome.

In the Florida Keys, where dolphins are studied year-round, visitors to each of five centers can have a unique and wonderful encounter — sharing an in-water experience with these gentle animals while learning about them.

Before any in-water encounter, the facilities provide in-depth briefings that cover dolphin behavior, facts about the engaging creatures, and how to safely and respectfully interact with them. (FYI, during your encounter, don’t be surprised if the ever-curious dolphins use their sensitive bottle-shaped noses to give you the once-over — or present their chins to be scratched or even kissed.)

So where can you have an intriguing dolphin experience in the Keys?

Mandy Rodriguez, the guiding spirit behind Dolphin Research Center, shares some quality time with his buddies. (Photo courtesy of Dolphin Research Center)

Dolphin Research Center, mile marker (MM) 59 bayside on Grassy Key near Marathon, specializes in presenting marine mammal education and research programs to the public. Founded in 1984 as a nonprofit facility, DRC is home to a family of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions — most of whom were born there.

Enjoy daily narrated dolphin and sea lion behavior sessions and educational presentations to learn about marine mammals and the environment — plus interactive programs like Trainer for a Day, Researcher for a Day, swim and wade sessions and even the fun-filled Paint with a Dolphin.

At Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, Ocean Bay Drive at MM 100 oceanside, you can experience natural or unstructured swims with other participants and dolphins, structured swims or one-on-one interactive sessions with dolphins and sea lion encounters. Natural swim participants revel in the natural beauty and behavior of dolphins while snorkeling; structured swim participants follow a trainer’s instructions for hands-on interaction.

You’ll also find extended education programs, including Trainer for a Day and a three-day Dolphin Exploration Lab, that focus on a general study of dolphins and their habitats.

As well as dolphins, lively parrots and other creatures delight visitors to Islamorada's Theater of the Sea. (Photo courtesy of Theater of the Sea)

In addition, dolphin therapy programs are offered on the premises to individuals with disabilities and their families. Coordinated by the not-for-profit Island Dolphin Care, these remarkable programs involve educational, recreational, and motivational activities.

Islamorada-based Theater of the Sea, MM 84.5 oceanside, offers dolphin, sea lion and stingray swim programs, along with bottomless boat rides, parrot shows and continuous marine shows featuring dolphins and sea lions. Plus there’s a guided marine life tour that features tropical fish, sea turtle, alligator and crocodile exhibits — and don’t miss Theater of the Sea’s four-hour adventure boat tour, which includes a bay ride and snorkel time.

Dolphin Cove is a marine education and dolphin swim facility at MM 102 bayside in Key Largo. There you can choose from natural or structured swims, shallow water encounters in waist-deep water or Trainer for a Day programs that include dolphin interactions and a glimpse into marine mammal care and training.

Even small children can safely participate in magical dolphin encounters in some Keys centers.

Based at Hawk’s Cay Resort, MM 61 oceanside on Duck Key, Dolphin Connection offers a group of appealing dolphin encounter programs. Dolphin Discovery allows supervised contact with dolphins from a submerged platform, while Dockside Dolphins offers interactions without entering the water. You’ll also find a fascinating three-hour Trainer for a Day session that includes a behind-the-scenes look at dolphin training.

Of course, all five centers maintain high standards for safeguarding the physical and emotional health of the dolphins under their care, and the environment these creatures call home.

There’s no substitute for an unforgettable firsthand dolphin encounter at one of the places described here. But if you can’t make it down to the Florida Keys quite yet, click here for webcam previews from Dolphin Research Center, Dolphin Cove, and Island Dolphin Care.

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Marathon, Voices Main Archive

It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of August and Key West is just as busy as ever. I drove along Duval Street early this week and there were cars parked on either side for block after block. Despite the stock recent economic challenges, our visitors keep on coming.

Blog author Steve Smith grins as three drag queens "ambush" him during a recent Key West event.

And believe me, there’s plenty going on to keep all of us entertained! This past Sunday, Schooner Wharf Bar hosted its 18th annual Battle of the Bars. The event raises money for the Cancer Foundation of the Florida Keys and featured “mixologists” from the island’s favorite watering holes. I’m proud to announce that our own Bourbon St. Pub took this year’s first-place trophy.

Bourbon St. hosts many fundraising events throughout the year in its outdoor garden bar. Starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, is BSP’s annual Golden Plunger Awards, which gives locals and visitors an opportunity to vote for their favorite “best and worst” of Key West. Ballots are available from now until the afternoon of the awards at Aqua, Bobby’s Monkey Bar, Kwest, and 801 Bourbon Bar.

On a more serious note, one of Key West’s last “big-shoulder broads” has joined the stars that look down on this small island. Mary Jo Da Silva arrived in our community some 12 years ago and quickly became a fixture at our theaters and piano bars — and was usually the first one on the dance floor at La Te Da’s Sunday Tea Dance.

Key West's Mary Jo Da Silva will be remembered for her zest for life -- and vivid red lipstick. (Photo by Larry Blackburn)

If you had the chance to meet her, you won’t forget her great smile, bright red lipstick, and zest for life.  Given three months to live in August 2007, she set out to prove that gloomy diagnosis wrong. Our Mary Jo was at Tea Dance only a week before cancer took her from us. Rest well, Mary Jo, and have fun with the Key West characters up there. We will miss you down here!

Speaking of being down here, those of you who dive the Hoyt S. Vandenberg artificial reef can now view an underwater art exhibit on the former Air Force missile tracking ship that was sunk in May 2009.  The second largest artificial reef in the world, the Vandenberg now displays a dozen images along 200 feet of its starboard side some 93 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The 20-square-foot images were created by Austrian art photographer Andreas Franke.

Have you ever thought about diving for lionfish? For the second year, the Keys’ Reef Environmental Education Foundation partnered with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to host a Lionfish Derby for divers to capture and remove the invasive species from Keys waters. The popular aquarium fish wreaks havoc on the indigenous species and has become a challenge to contain.

A diver examines art photos created by Austrian photographer Andreas Franke on the Vandenberg artificial reef. (Photo by Andreas Franke)

On the positive side, the strange-looking fish are a delicious delicacy and REEF has released a cookbook full of recipes. (If you’re not experienced with catching this critter, be sure to use caution since lionfish are quite a challenge to handle.)

Note for upcoming visits: Key West’s Island House, internationally renowned as an all-gay men’s guesthouse, is celebrating its 35th anniversary by offering all 39 rooms at $13 — the price the guesthouse charged when it opened in 1976 — for the night of June 25, 2012.  Island House’s “35 & Fabulous” sweepstakes runs until Sept. 5, so be sure to enter!

And while we’re on the subject of upcoming visits, here are a few important dates: Tropical Heat kicks off Aug. 18 with a party at Big Ruby’s, and Womenfest kicks off Sept. 6 with a big party at the Southernmost Hotel.  Mark your calendars and join me in Key West!

Topics: Environment, Key West, LGBT, On the Water

“I want to get to Key West and away from it all,” literary legend Ernest Hemingway wrote in a letter to his friend and editor, Maxwell Perkins.

Among the notable writers who live in Key West or visit regularly are (from left) Tom Corcoran, Michael Haskins, Lorian Hemingway and Mark Childress. (Photo courtesy of Michael Haskins)

Hemingway, who lived in a Spanish Colonial villa on Key West’s Whitehead Street throughout the 1930s, is arguably the island’s most famous writer-resident — but he’s far from the only one. In fact, for decades America’s subtropical southernmost city has exerted an almost mystical attraction for writers of all types.

For example, Tennessee Williams owned a home on a quiet side street from the late 1940s until his death. Robert Frost was a frequent guest of hostess Jessie Porter Newton, and Thornton Wilder wrote “The Matchmaker” in Key West.

More recent literary residents have included Shel Silverstein, Annie Dillard, Tom Corcoran, Richard Wilbur, Alison Lurie, Thomas McGuane, Judy Blume, Mark Childress, Jimmy Buffett, Meg Cabot, Michael Haskins and Philip Caputo.

What is it that draws writers to Key West, captures their imaginations, and keeps them returning as visitors or inspires them to become residents?

Author Lorian Hemingway (right) is joined at a Key West book signing by her daughter Cristen, also a writer and editor. (Photo courtesy of Katharine Roach)

Lorian Hemingway, author of the novel “Walking into the River,” the critically acclaimed memoir “Walk on Water” and the riveting “A World Turned Over,” has been coming to the island since the late 1960s. She’s currently chronicling its flavor, personalities and past in a book-in-progress titled “Key West: The Pirate Heart.”

Lorian is Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter, but her reasons for referring to Key West as her second home have little to do with her grandfather’s legacy.

“Writers are drawn to places of fecundity and abundance, particularly when water is involved,” she says. “It’s a natural thing, being close to your roots — and the ocean is, in the very truest sense, our genesis. Perhaps writers, because of what they have to tap into in order to create, pick up on this subconsciously a little more than others.”

Phil Caputo’s best-known book is “A Rumor of War,” widely regarded as a definitive work on the brutal Viet Nam conflict. Several of his subsequent offerings took shape during his 11-year residence in Key West — a perfect setting, he believes, for those artists and writers who crave freedom from the mainstream world and its values.

Pulitzer Prize winner Phil Caputo, author of "Crossers" among other acclaimed volumes, lived in Key West for 11 years.

“Artists and writers are a bit outlaw. They march to a different drummer — and it’s a lot more congenial when you’re surrounded by a lot of other people who also march to a different drummer,” says Phil. “That’s what’s great about Key West. You’ve got people who are treasure divers and fortune seekers and renegades and runaways, and that makes life interesting.”

Perhaps acclaimed playwright Tennessee Williams provided the simplest yet most important reason for the island city’s popularity with those who write. “I work best here,” he stated in a long-ago interview.

As an authors’ haven and favorite retreat, Key West has earned an indelible place in the literary world. The island’s undemanding atmosphere leaves plenty of room for creativity to flower — and many writers seem to feel the pull of an elemental magic that defies definition.

“I’ve always been drawn by the ocean and the great ships and the moon and the water, and there’s something magical in Key West that goes somewhere very deep in me,” says Lorian Hemingway, whose island hideaway overlooks the Atlantic. “There’s a mystical quality that has at times just taken me over. I feel like I’m home every time I come back.”

Topics: Arts, Highlights, History, Key West, Voices Main Archive