For award-winning writer Brad Bertelli, life is about noticing the little things — especially when he’s hovering over coral heads offshore. His book, “Snorkeling Florida: 50 Excellent Sites,” reveals many of his favorites, and the reefs of the Florida Keys (renowned as North America’s most accessible dive and snorkel destination) best represent what the water has to offer.

"Snorkeling Florida" spotlights author and underwater aficionado Brad Bertelli's favorite Florida Keys snorkeling spots.

Brad’s favorite snorkeling sites include coral reefs, seagrass beds and shipwrecks. Luckily for aquatic enthusiasts, the Keys provide easy offshore access to each underwater environment. Water depths are typically shallow, and water temperatures range from the 70s in winter months to the 80s in summer — practically guaranteeing a safe and enjoyable trip.

If you’re a snorkeler, kicking from shore just beyond the seagrass beds will bring you to structures such as coral heads, rocks or outcroppings where you can see a variety of fish.

“Fish look for these ’condos‘ to live and dart in and out of,” Brad said.

Sightings increase, he advised, when the tide is changing or at low tide, and when there’s low wind — usually in the early morning hours before afternoon clouds build up and create surface chop.

Snorkeling sites in the Keys are shallow, allowing for maximum light (and color) exposure along the reef line. (Photo by Pat Taylor)

Keeping a slow pace is important as well. Snorkeling is not a race, so take your time to examine the reef, soaking it all in. The ease of snorkeling is what makes it so appealing for people of all ages and experience levels.

Key Largo is brimming with fine snorkeling spots — many of them in or near John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. They include the north end of Molasses Reef, a beautiful and shallow strip of reef lush with schooling blue striped grunts and Florida favorites like sergeant majors, horse-eyed jacks and Bermuda chubs.

Just off Founders Park on Plantation Key is a group of coral heads between three and four feet tall. For a family with little kids, cruising down the jetty is great for spotting nurse sharks, rays, starfish and seahorses.

Off Islamorada’s Cheeca Lodge, Brad often hovers over “Cheeca Rocks,” a shallow, healthy cluster of robustly populated coral heads that aren’t heavily dived.

Shown here above water, Brad Bertelli offers informative insights on the Keys' underwater world based on his first-hand experience.

Indian Key, accessible by boat or a 25-minute paddle by kayak, is home to small critters like banded shrimp, damselfish and juvenile angelfish that crowd around lime-colored brain coral heads.

In the Lower Keys, though Looe Key is legendary for its glorious finger reef seascape, Brad said his all-time favorite shore snorkel is the untouched and uncrowded beauty at Bahia Honda State Park. In shoreside waters only four feet deep, you can spot “babies” from a variety of species including starfish and conch.

“What is so remarkable about snorkeling the Keys is how much you can see offshore without having to be on a boat,” stated Brad. “You can wade in off the beach and it’s truly breathtaking.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Keys Environment, Local Color, Marathon, On the Water

Before Chris Robinson became a Lower Keys fishing guide, he co-owned the All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound, tended bar for some 20 years at Key West’s landmark Chart Room and Louie’s Backyard, and shared adventures with Jimmy Buffett and other notables.

As a young Key West bartender in the 1970s and early '80s, Chris met writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” (Photos courtesy of Chris Robinson)

In fact, when Chris arrived in Key West in 1972, the 24-year-old from St. Augustine, Fla., found himself in a renegade seaport town. Politicos ran the government largely from the Chart Room Bar (where Chris captured a coveted bartending job), hobbyist pot smugglers were admired as romantic outlaws, and local treasure hunters drank rum with Pulitzer Prize–winning escapees from the literary mainstream.

Tall and spare, with long hair and a luxuriant moustache, Chris displays a storyteller’s wit, easygoing attitude and lively enjoyment of the absurd. During his early Key West years, those traits served him well in an offbeat venture begun with buddy Tommy Hicks.

“We opened the world-famous All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound on Greene Street,” said Chris. “Our motto was We Relish Your Buns.”

The business didn’t last long, but old-time Key Westers still wax nostalgic about the “pound’s” juicy hot dogs nestled in soft Cuban rolls.

At that time, Key West’s ramshackle charm and end-of-the-road atmosphere made it a magnet for writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” Among them were novelist and poet Jim Harrison, “Ninety-two in the Shade” author Tom McGuane and struggling singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who later memorialized the Key West lifestyle in song and earned enduring fame.

Chris (at left holding a freshly-caught permit) eventually became a Keys fishing guide.

“He was not a star then,” said Chris. “He used to sit with his little guitar and amp and play in the Chart Room.”

The two became friends when Buffett moved into the oceanfront apartment above Chris’s beside a bar and restaurant named Louie’s Backyard.

By 1986, Chris was tending bar at the Afterdeck at Louie’s, an open-air cocktail deck on the edge of the Atlantic, whose clientele combined local fishermen, upscale tourists and visiting celebrities. It was a position he would hold for 18 years.

Yet while he enjoyed the Keys’ partying pursuits, Chris also was drawn to life on the water. An angler since his childhood, he bought a boat shortly after arriving in Key West and learned flats fishing tips from Tom McGuane.

In action on the Florida Keys flats, Chris guides anglers to tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional shark.

Eventually he got his captain’s license and began guiding. In 2004, he retired from Louie’s Backyard and began chartering full time on his 18-foot Action Craft, fishing the flats for tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional shark. He called his business Big Kahuna Charters.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Chris enjoys guiding novice anglers as much as he does seasoned pros.

Poling through the shallows, he also shares his love of the diverse and vibrant Keys environment with his clients — pointing out sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, stingrays and manatees.

“I tell people it’s an eco-tour with a chance to catch a fish,” said Chris.

It might be a long road from the bartending high life to the natural realm of the flats, but Chris Robinson has traveled it with grace — and few regrets.

Some years back, while guiding a Chicago office worker on a February fishing escape, he realized just how lucky he was.

“It was about 80 degrees, the water had three different colors and the sky was that big, high-pressure clear deep blue,” said Chris, “and he looks at me and he goes, ‘Nice office’.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, Keys Environment, Local Color, On the Water, Profiles

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? In Key West, nobody. And while Key West’s Wolf is certainly big, it’s only bad in the slang sense, where “bad” means seriously terrific.

The Schooner Wolf under full sail is a magnificent reminder of Key West's seafaring heritage. (Photo courtesy of the Schooner Wolf)

That’s because Key West’s “wolf” is the 74-foot gaff-rigged topsail Schooner Wolf, a majestic tall ship that’s been headquartered in the island city for some 25 years.

The flagship of the Keys’ Conch Republic, the Wolf is patterned after the 19th-century blockade runners that once plied the waters of the Florida Straits. The classic schooner has appeared in several movies, stars in Key West’s annual Pirates in Paradise festival, and is renowned for its humanitarian relief sails to needy Caribbean and Bahamian island communities.

But the Wolf is most notable for something else entirely: its owner and skipper, Captain Finbar Gittelman.

Captain Finbar Gittelman, a master seafarer with a roguish sense of humor, is the builder and skipper of the Wolf. (Photo by Rob O'Neal)

The epitome of an old salt, Captain Finbar bears a slightly unnerving resemblance to the wicked Barbossa in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” He has lived in Key West since the early 1970s and built his classic schooner in the early 1980s.

As admiral-in-chief of the Keys’ picturesque Conch Republic Navy, Finbar presides over the navy’s yearly sea battle with “federal invaders” — a highlight of the annual Conch Republic Independence Celebration. (By a strange coincidence, the navy ALWAYS wins). He’s also a legendary pirate king who, with his lady Julie McEnroe (a.k.a. Blossom), oversees Key West’s rollicking Pirates in Paradise festival.

However, there’s more to the captain than the personas he assumes with devil-may-care enthusiasm. In 1980 Finbar survived a deadly Caribbean hurricane at sea, spending three harrowing days in a tiny life raft after the ship he was piloting sank in the storm.

Shortly before the Wolf's departure for Haiti, volunteers load a portion of more than 10 tons of relief supplies destined for earthquake victims. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

He has since sailed the Wolf on several missions of mercy after hurricanes and other natural disasters, carrying cargoes of relief supplies to desperate people in stricken Caribbean regions.

On Feb. 20, the Wolf departed Key West’s Historic Seaport for earthquake-ravaged Haiti, carrying more than 10 tons of food, water, medicine, tools and other supplies donated by Florida Keys residents and businesses.

Finbar and Julie expect the crossing to Haiti to take between five and seven days. Their final destination is a remote coastal area not accessible to larger relief ships, where members of the local fishing fleet will paddle their dugout canoes out to meet the schooner.

As the Wolf sets sail for Haiti Feb. 20, Finbar blows the conch horn in farewell while Julie waves goodbye to friends on the dock. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Not only will the Wolf bring these people lifesaving supplies — it also carries the good wishes of hundreds of Keys residents, and a part of the island chain’s vital spirit.

“People keep asking me why we’re doing this, and my answer is simple,” said Finbar. “We’re islanders, and we need to take care of our fellow islanders.”

So raise a glass in salute to the Wolf, to Finbar and Julie and the rest of the Haiti-bound crew. May they find fair winds and smooth seas, and a safe journey home.

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, Keys History, Local Color, On the Water, Profiles

Ever wondered why there’s a gigantic panorama of fish and other sea creatures wrapped around a four-story building in the median of the Overseas Highway in Key Largo?

Actually, it’s the brainchild of an internationally acclaimed marine life artist who just happens to live in the Upper Keys.

Marine life artist Wyland takes a break after putting finishing touches on his 7,500-square-foot marine life mural in Key Largo. (Photo by Andy Newman/ Florida Keys News Bureau)

The 7,500-square-foot wraparound mural, located at mile marker 99.2, depicts the living coral reef that parallels the Florida Keys — the only living coral barrier reef in the continental U.S. And thanks to artist and environmentalist Wyland, Keys visitors can preview that reef’s breathtaking ecosystem without getting wet.

For some 30 years, Wyland has used his artistic talent to raise awareness about the need to preserve and protect the oceans and their inhabitants. An avid diver who’s spent hundreds of hours happily submerged in Florida Keys waters, he credits the Keys reef for inspiring much of his work.

“The Florida Keys is one of the best places in the world to dive,” said Wyland. “Every time I dive I learn more, and then I try to incorporate that into my paintings and my sculptures and my murals.”

A diver explores the coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo. (Photo by Bob Care/Florida Keys News Bureau)

In fact, just a few miles from the Key Largo mural site lies John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first underwater preserve in the United States.

Pennekamp is incorporated into the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which covers about 2,800 square nautical miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamp on both sides of the Keys island chain — with an indigenous population that includes more than 600 species of fish and 55 varieties of coral. Savvy underwater enthusiasts call the area one of the most fascinating dive sites on the planet.

Wyland’s Key Largo mural, completed in 2007, features manatees, manta rays, corals, sea turtles, fish and bottlenose dolphins.

“This mural is really the gateway to the Florida Keys,” said the artist, who has painted 99 other mammoth marine life murals on buildings around the United States, Australia, France, Japan and other far-flung locations including New Zealand.

Wyland details the eye of a manatee during the creation of his Key Largo mural. (Photo by Gary Firstenberg)

Another of his marine life panoramas graces a former warehouse in Key West’s Historic Seaport district, and a third overlooks the Overseas Highway at mile marker 50 in Marathon. Like all of Wyland’s murals, they’re designed to motivate environmental awareness and responsibility — particularly in children.

“Art is something that can touch people’s emotion,” he said. “You can choose not to go into a gallery or a museum, but you can’t ignore a giant mural. If people see this beauty, I know they’ll want to get involved in protecting it.”

Next time you drive into or out of the Keys, immerse yourself in the island chain’s coral reef ecosystem at mile marker 99.2. It’s a great introduction to the underwater world … and you don’t even need to leave your car.

Topics: Arts, Florida Keys, Highlights, Key Largo, Keys Environment, Local Color, On the Water

The Loch Ness Monster spent the winter in Key West a couple of years ago.

Actually, a lot of celebrities have wintered on the subtropical island where daytime temps in January and February generally exceed 70 degrees.

New York artist Cameron Gainer settles the Loch Ness Monster into its winter home in a Key West pond at the beginning of the 2008 Sculpture Key West exhibition. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Robert Frost, for one — the renowned poet abandoned New England for a cottage on Key West’s Caroline Street each winter from 1945 to 1960.

But until a couple of years ago, though Key Westers had seen plenty of snowbirds flocking to the southernmost city to escape the northern cold, they’d never seen anything like the Loch Ness Monster.

Nessie journeyed south on a boat trailer with New York artist Cameron Gainer, who was participating in the 2008 Sculpture Key West exhibition. The annual juried exhibition features work in many types of traditional and experimental media, displayed beside the island’s Civil War-era forts and public gardens — and in several other “surprise” locations around Key West.

Nessie, who turned out to be quite a surprise indeed, was destined for a winter home in a local pond at the entrance to Key West’s picturesque Old Town. But installing the 12-foot by 12.5-foot foam-and-fiberglass monster in the pond was no easy task.

Nessie isn't the only sculpted creature to visit Key West during the annual Sculpture Key West display. Here, artist Doug Makemson introduces "Henry," a nine-foot steel dog that starred in a previous exhibition. (Photo courtesy of Sculpture Key West)

Cameron was inspired to create Nessie by a 1934 photo that supposedly showed its humped back and long curving neck rising out of Scotland’s Loch Ness. To settle the monster in its warm-water winter home, he donned a wetsuit and jumped into the pond to guide the installation.

A Bobcat tractor, a small floating platform and a thick rope “leash” were required in the effort, which drew double-takes and laughter from passing drivers.

For the rest of that winter, much to the delight of absurdity-loving locals, Nessie startled unsuspecting passersby as they entered the historic Old Town district.

The 2010 Sculpture Key West exhibition doesn’t feature any legendary monsters — but that’s perfectly okay, because it includes plenty of other intriguing examples of artistry.

A sailboat is framed by the wood sculpture "Forest of Souls" on display at Sculpture Key West 2010. The wooden hoop by artist Jonathan Schork is composed of buttonwood, Brazilian pepper and Australian pine branches. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Thirty-some artists hailing from Paris, Berlin and 11 American states are showcasing their work in three venues at this year’s exhibition: the waterfront grounds of Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, the tranquil and inspiring home of the Key West Garden Club at West Martello Tower, and the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden near the entrance to Key West.

Favorite sculptures include an 18-foot-tall wooden hoop-shaped memorial, a commentary on consumerism crafted out of recycled plastic bags, and an interactive “musical chairs” installation made (believe it or not) from discarded brass instruments that people can actually play.

At all three locations, the sculptures will remain on display through April 16.

Take a tip from a longtime Keys local who’s seen many previous Sculpture Key West exhibitions — Nessie might not be lurking around, but even so this is a “monstrously” good show. If you’re in the Keys, don’t miss it!

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Arts, Festivals, Florida Keys, Key West, Keys Quirks, Local Color

Harry Truman slept in a double bed in Key West in a room that, by day, was warmed by the subtropical sun. Close to his bed was the simple desk where he wrote daily letters to his wife Bess. Downstairs, on a sun porch overlooking a broad sweep of lawn, stood his discreetly-covered poker table.

Harry Truman's former "little White House" in Key West is now a world-renowned museum. (Photos courtesy of the Little White House Museum)

Harry Truman could relax in Key West. From 1946 to 1952 he spent 11 working vacations on the island — taking brisk morning walks, playing poker, swimming and fishing, and making some of the most important decisions of his presidency.

Truman first visited Key West when his doctor ordered rest to fight a bad cold. Entranced by the island, he quickly adopted the one-time commandant’s quarters on the Key West naval station as his “little White House.”

Today, that West Indian structure is a noteworthy American historic site known as the Harry S. Truman Little White House Museum.

Florida’s only presidential museum, it’s located on the former Navy base in an enclave now called Truman Annex. There, visitors can tour airy, comfortable rooms that look much as they did in Harry’s day, listening to guides tell tales of his presidency and Key West sojourns.

During his Key West sojourns, Truman made momentous decisions and conducted important meetings away from the pressures of Washington.

The house’s easygoing atmosphere offers no hint of the momentous issues decided there. According to Bob Wolz, the museum’s executive director, it’s believed that Truman decided to adopt the Marshall Plan to aid postwar Europe while he was in Key West — as well as deciding to relieve General Douglas MacArthur of his command and to forego running for reelection.

Bob should know. Seemingly born to nurture and guide the Little White House, he’s a passionate historian and an expert on all things Truman. He even co-wrote a book about Harry’s Key West years.

The end of those years certainly didn’t mark the end of the Little White House’s role in politics. Since then, the house has hosted former presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton — and even the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan during a historic four-day peace conference.

The Little White House has also hosted other former presidents and political leaders -- including Bill and Hillary Clinton, seen here chatting with the museum's guiding spirit Bob Wolz.

Last May, a rededication ceremony commemorated a seven-year, nearly million-dollar research-intensive restoration that brought even greater historical authenticity to Harry’s one-time headquarters.

For example, all the interior walls were repainted to match the 1949 colors revealed by a detailed paint analysis, and the foyer’s original wallpaper was recreated and hung. The living room draperies and upholstery were replaced with fabric that matched the original, located after an Internet search.

The restoration team even found (and had reproduced) 18 oil paintings and prints that were displayed in the 1949 Little White House. Outside, the Truman gardens were replicated based on site plans and their appearance in vintage photographs.

Even small details weren’t overlooked. Volunteers searched industriously until they found and obtained duplicates of the lamps that graced Harry and Bess Truman’s bedside tables — and flower arrangements were recreated from photographs showing the rooms in the late 1940s.

Today, visitors to the Little White House seemingly step back in time to view the property just as the late president did.

Each May, the museum co-hosts a Key West symposium that examines Truman’s legacy.

During the opening reception on the grounds, attendees can hear nationally recognized speakers and meet VIPs like former Truman aide Ken Hechler, who later became West Virginia’s secretary of state. In past years, many reception guests have chatted with the late president’s grandson Clifton Truman Daniel.

Not surprisingly, he seems right at home in the Little White House his grandfather loved.

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, Keys History

“You just keep fishing with it, Andy. I guarantee you’ll catch a quality fish.”

Those words of veteran ESPN angling broadcaster George Poveromo, who also hosts the annual Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series, had become permanently etched in my mind for almost three years.

But despite logging literally hundreds of trolling miles on the purple Yo-Zuri bonita lure, the plug had not yielded a single fish — or even a hit.

George Poveromo, all smiles after landing this large dolphin, will head up the Jan. 23 Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series in Islamorada. The touted Yo-Zuri lure was not utilized to catch this fish.

My frustration started after Poveromo published one of the best how-to dolphin fishing stories I had ever read in “Salt Water Sportsman” magazine. In the article, he touted the Yo-Zuri as a must-have lure.

After reading his prose, I wandered in to Captain Harry’s Fishing Supply in Miami and searched out the can’t-miss plug. Poveromo’s wonderful praise made me quickly forget about the $40 price tag.

Time after time, I trolled the Yo-Zuri behind my boat and, despite catching fish on other lures and natural baits, the Yo-Zuri failed to yield a strike.

I called Poveromo and expressed my disappointment.

“Just keep fishing with it,” he said. “The strikes will be few and far between, but it will be a quality fish that will bite that lure. I guarantee it.”

One day I was out fishing with “Sun-Sentinel” outdoors writer Steve Waters off the Upper Keys. I dragged the Yo-Zuri then, as well. After several hours, I replaced it with a blue and white Islander and almost immediately a nice dolphin gobbled up the presentation.

As I was cranking in the fish, Waters queried me about the lure. I explained that I had purchased it based on Poveromo’s glowing report.

Waters laughed and said, “Andy, don’t you know that Yo-Zuri sponsors George?”

The next day I called Poveromo. He assured me that, despite the sponsorship, the Yo-Zuri would produce.

Andy Newman displays his "quality fish" and the Yo-Zuri lure that made the catch possible. (Photo by Roy Hughes)

“Just keep fishing with it,” he said. “The strikes will be few and far between, but that lure will catch a quality fish. I guarantee it.”

Well, I kept fishing with that lure and finally about a year later I had success.

I was out with some friends chasing schoolie dolphin (mahi-mah) about 30 miles off Ocean Reef. We came upon a floating palette. There were no dolphin, but we did see about seven tripletail. We managed to nab four of those fish, including a biggie weighing almost 8 pounds.

Before we left, I decided we should try a deep-running bait in the event a wahoo was in the vicinity. Of course, I thought about the Yo-Zuri — the pride of Poveromo — and rigged it to a 50-pound Penn International.

We went ahead and moved several hundred yards away from the palette, circled around and came back dragging the Yo-Zuri behind the boat.

Three minutes later, the rod bent hard and the drag signaled a fish. I couldn’t believe it. In less then 10 minutes we gaffed a small wahoo, about 15 pounds.

George Poverormo (right), senior editor of "Salt Water Sportsman" magazine, presents Andy Newman with a wahoo mount at the Salt Water Sportsman Seminar Series in Islamorada.

I told Poveromo of the achievement and several months later, at the inaugural National Seminar Series seminar in Islamorada, he was kind enough to present me with a King Sailfish Mounts’ wahoo reproduction in front of the entire audience.

“Well, it’s about time,” he told me and an audience of about 400 anglers. “You see, I told you that you would catch a quality fish with that lure.”

I responded to George that, while the wahoo was a welcome surprise, at 15 pounds it certainly was not going to get me in the record books.

“You just keep fishing with that,“ Poveromo said. “I guarantee you …”

“I know,” I interrupted. “I’m going to catch a quality fish.”

###

Blogger’s Note 1: Poveromo is scheduled to stage another Keys-based seminar Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Coral Shores High School Performing Arts Theater, mile marker 89.9 in Islamorada. A number of Keys captains and guides will share the stage providing Keys angling tips. A ticket to the Seminar Series costs $55 per person and includes a year-long subscription or extension to “Salt Water Sportsman” magazine, as well as other incentives. To order tickets online — and for more information — visit www.nationalseminarseries.com.

Andy Newman has scored many blackfin tuna catches off Islamorada with this Rapala lure.

Blogger’s Note 2: Poveromo is no longer sponsored by Yo-Zuri, but recently announced an affiliation with Rapala. I have had personal experience with a red-and-white Rapala CDMAG14 lure and can verify its effectiveness when trolled quickly for blackfin tuna off the Florida Keys. It’s sensational … and I guarantee it!

Topics: Florida Keys, Islamorada, Key Largo, Keys Environment, Local Color, Marathon, On the Water

This might be her 31st year in the scuba diving business, but Amy Slate has not lost an ounce of her enthusiasm for diving, ocean preservation or the Key Largo community she’s called home since the 1970s. Owner and operator of Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort, she’s living a dream of being connected to marine life that began when she was a child growing up in Miami.

Amy Slate, today the owner of Amoray Dive Resort, discovered her passion for the world beneath the sea at an early age. (Photo by Frazier Nivens)

At age 6, a swim with the dolphins at Key West’s Flipper Sea School launched Amy’s passion. Afterward, convinced she would spend her life in, on and around the ocean, she excitedly told her parents, “This is it!”

Years later, as a teacher in rural Jacksonville, Fla., Amy taught sixth-grade students lessons in all subjects with teaching tools derived from the ocean. Utilizing seashells, students learned how to take measurements, use multiplication and explore scientific origins by reading about shells and marine life.

Amy also conducted dive training classes at the YMCA. Yet the tug of her South Florida roots (coupled with morning frost on the car windows), were enough to make her decide, along with then-husband Spencer, to head for the Keys in 1978. There they started a dive business named Atlantis Dive Center.

Amy Slate shares her Upper Keys life with Labrador retrievers Mia and Tia. (Photo by Peter Lorber)

In 1992, Amy dissolved her personal and professional partnerships to branch out on her own with brother Justin. After years spent studying other dive resorts — “research” that involved diving with humpback whales in French Polynesia and on the reefs of Bonaire, Cozumel and the Caribbean — Amy opened Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort.

The property, and its name, were born from Amy’s deep love for the ocean and a play on her Italian family roots in the province of Sant’ Agata di Puglia. After every dive trip, the Amoray boat crew plays “That’s Amore!” on the return to the dock, and the resort’s signature logo is a moray eel in the shape of a heart.

The resort reflects Amy’s love of the Keys environment. All rooms are named after reef fish and brightly decorated with Caribbean-style colors, tropical linens, furnishings and wall hangings.

Amy still dives at least two afternoons a week along the reefs and wrecks of Key Largo. (Photo by Frazier Nivens)

Over the years, Amy and Amoray have earned a reputation for excelling at underwater weddings. Amoray Dive Resort ceremonies have been featured in “People” magazine and on a television show hosted by Geraldo Rivera — who even blew a conch shell on-camera for his audience.

Amy’s activities, however, aren’t limited to operating the resort. She has focused on fundraisers for local dolphin care centers and shelters for women and children, has served on the board of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, and is active in furthering coral restoration and transplantation projects with a local marine scientist.

Despite her wide-ranging travels, she believes the Florida Keys are still the best place to dive. In fact, she dives the Upper Keys’ Molasses Reef at least two afternoons a week to relax.

“Not everyone can live their passion,” Amy says. “But if you do what you love, the rest will follow.”

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Key Largo, Keys Environment, On the Water, Profiles

Dorothy, you’re not in Kansas anymore.

While most visitors to Key West catch on to that fact fairly quickly, the island city’s New Year’s Eve celebration should provide definitive proof for anyone still in doubt.

Sushi, a.k.a. Key West resident Gary Marion, stars in the "drag queen drop" that welcomes the New Year in Key West. (Photos by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Granted, the festivities include a ruby slipper. But instead of adorning Dorothy’s dainty foot, the sparkling shoe is a supersized power pump — and it serves as a chariot for legendary drag queen Sushi.

For more than 10 consecutive years Sushi, otherwise known as Key West resident Gary Marion, has starred in the New Year’s Eve festivities at the Bourbon Street Pub/New Orleans House complex at 724 Duval St. — while perched in a gigantic red high heel suspended high above the street.

This year will be no exception. Seconds before midnight on Dec. 31, the shoe bearing the lavishly gowned and coiffed Sushi will be lowered from the second-story balcony of the complex toward thousands of cheering spectators below.

Sushi reaches the end of her descent to Duval Street during the revelry welcoming 2009.

As midnight strikes and 2010 officially begins, she will land and pop the cork on a ceremonial bottle of champagne.

Even if you can’t make it to Key West this year for America’s southernmost New Year’s Eve celebration, you can still share in Sushi’s “shoe-nanigans” through the magic of cable TV.

In what has become a tradition over the past seven years, CNN plans to be in Key West with correspondent John Zarrella as a facet of the network’s live New Year’s Eve coverage hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin.

While Sushi presides over the revelry from her “throne” in the second-story shoe, the unflappable John Zarrella, a favorite of Key West audiences, will offer street-level commentary.

Appearances on CNN are just one high-profile outlet for the multitalented Sushi. She’s also the leader of an acclaimed troupe of drag performers called the 801 Girls who strut their stuff at the 801 Bourbon Bar on Duval. A skilled costume designer, she’s even been prominently featured in a book titled “Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret.”

CNN correspondent John Zarrella provides live on-air commentary each year from the Key West festivities.

But it’s her role as a New Year’s Eve icon that has earned Sushi the most widespread fame. For starring in the island city’s “drag queen drop” — an offbeat take-off on New York City’s traditional New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square — she has even been mentioned in the “New York Times.”

“I never thought, growing up, that I’d be on television in a giant red heel,” confessed Sushi. “That’s not something that a young kid aspires to. But I’m so thankful that we live in a country that lets us do whatever we want to do as long as we don’t hurt anybody else.”

Topics: Events, Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, Keys Quirks, Local Color

Crazy as it sounds, the Weather Channel is forecasting snow in the near-tropical Florida Keys on Christmas Day.

Weather Channel meteorologist Adam Berg (right) surprises Lower Keys resident Howard Livingston with the news that his family won the network's "Guaranteed White Christmas" contest.

Specifically, though snow has never been recorded in the island chain, they’re forecasting it at the Lower Keys home of musician Howard Livingston — winner of the network’s nationwide “Guaranteed White Christmas” contest.

For Howard’s grand prize, The Weather Channel plans to orchestrate a massive manmade snowfall at his home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Meteorologist Adam Berg will be on hand to broadcast live coverage of the unprecedented “snow event” between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Christmas Day. It’s likely he’ll be broadcasting from the Lower Keys on Christmas Eve as well.

Michael Walker, Howard's grandson, starred in the family's video entry that earned them an unprecedented snowfall in the balmy Lower Keys.

“I didn’t think we had a chance, because I didn’t think they could possibly make snow when it’s 80 degrees,” said Howard, who shares his home with his wife of two months, Cyndy, and their two dogs.

He found out differently when Adam and a Weather Channel crew flew in Dec. 13 to deliver the good news in person.

“When Adam Berg showed up, our jaws dropped because we recognized him,” he admitted. “I was flabbergasted.”

Howard was chosen from hundreds of contest entrants who submitted brief videos explaining why their families deserved a white Christmas. His 60-second piece shows the touring/recording musician and songwriter in his sunny waterfront yard, trying to make snow for his six-year-old grandson Michael Walker in a quirky blender powered by a 1952 Johnson outboard motor.

Using an offbeat blender/boat motor, Howard attempts to blend snow for his grandson Michael in the LIvingstons' winning video entry.

According to a Weather Channel spokesperson, on Christmas Howard’s yard will be blanketed by tons of snow created from shaved ice by a snowmaking and special effects company.

The white stuff is designed to be “packable,” making it ideal for shaping snowballs and snowmen (much to the delight of Michael, who has already figured out the accessories he needs to construct the perfect snowman).

Before learning about their surprise contest victory, the Livingstons were planning a family Christmas with Michael, Howard’s daughter and Michael’s mother Amanda Walker, her partner Tyler Hanson and their 11-month-old daughter Courtney Hanson, who live nearby.

Wearing Santa hats in anticipation of their white Christmas, the Livingston family awaits the first flakes in their sunny oceanfront yard.

“We generally spend Christmas at home with Michael, open gifts in the morning and cook some lobster on the grill,” said Howard.

Grinning broadly, he added, “We’re going to do the same thing this year, but with snow.”

The happy contest winner — whose infectious tropical rock tunes with his Mile Marker 24 Band include “Blame It On the Margaritas” and, coincidentally, “Local On the Eights” about The Weather Channel’s local forecast segments — also intends to fire up the offbeat blender/boat motor featured in his video entry.

On Christmas, however, Howard won’t need to employ the blender for making snow. Instead, just as he does onstage when he performs with Mile Marker 24, he’ll use it to blend margaritas for new and old friends.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Events, Florida Keys, Highlights, Keys Quirks, Local Color