Florida Tourism

Looe Key, Florida Keys - “Reefpublicans” and “Democrabs” are to congregate in the Lower Florida Keys Saturday, July 12, when the 24th annual Underwater Music Festival puts an undersea spin on the upcoming 2008 presidential elections.

The quirky underwater concert takes place at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary located approximately six miles south of Big Pine Key. Each year, the subsea songfest draws as many as 600 divers and snorkelers to explore the colorful diversity of marine life that characterizes North America’s only living coral barrier reef.

The 2008 festival is to salute November’s “eel-ections” with underwater appearances by divers costumed as “Barackuda Obama,” “Hillary Clintuna” and “John McClam” among other political notables.

Set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the marine musical event is staged by Keys radio station WWUS 104.1 FM, locally called U.S. 1. Music is broadcast underwater via Lubell Laboratory speakers suspended beneath boats positioned at the reef, and the playlist typically ranges from humpback whale songs to marine-themed ditties such as the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at 40.”

“We also feature the work of local Keys musicians, who often have a unique vision of life in the Keys and on the water,” said event founder and organizer Bill Becker of U.S. 1. “This year, of course, we’re planning to add contemporary musical spoofs of the political process.”

Participants might even catch the scuba-diving “presidential hopefuls” tooting their own horns — pretending to play underwater musical instruments like a trom-bonefish and sax-eel-phone sculpted by Florida Keys artist August Powers.

While election “afishionados” are encouraged to enjoy the bipartisan party at Looe Key Reef, the concert also has a serious focus: promoting preservation of the Florida Keys’ unique coral reef ecosystem. The musical broadcast incorporates diver awareness announcements, prepared by Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials, offering tips on how people can enjoy the ocean while minimizing their impact on the reef and overall marine environment.

Divers and snorkelers eager to participate in the 2008 Underwater Music Festival can reserve space aboard boats run by Lower Keys dive operators. Visitors and residents with their own boats can launch from public ramps and marinas throughout the area.

For information about dive charters and accommodations in the Lower Florida Keys, contact the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce at (800) 872-3722 or (305) 872-2411, or visit the Florida Keys Web site at www.fla-keys.com or the chamber’s Web site at www.lowerkeyschamber.com.

Key West, Florida Keys — Revelers in Cuban dress are scheduled to conga from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico Friday night, May 23, to kick off Key West’s ninth annual Cuban American Heritage Festival. The festivities are to continue through Sunday, May 25, with events celebrating the island city’s rich and colorful Cuban heritage.

Led by Comparsa Key West, the festival’s official dance troupe, the conga line is to step off at 8 p.m. and proceed down mile-long Duval Street from the ocean to the gulf. Members of the public are invited to put on their dancing shoes, grab their tambourines and join the fun.

Located just 90 miles from Cuba, Key West was the site of nearly 150 cigar factories in the mid to late 1800s, when the island city welcomed thousands of Cuban immigrants seeking greater personal and political freedom. Tickets are $50 per person, and seating is limited but there are plenty of things to do in Key West so don’t wait. For reservations, call (305) 295-9665. The family-oriented Cuban American Heritage Festival showcases the vibrant culture and customs these individuals brought with them to Key West.

Midway along the procession’s route, dancers and revelers are to pass the historic San Carlos Institute, where Jose Marti launched his 1892 drive for his homeland’s independence.

Conga celebrants are to proceed to El Meson de Pepe, 410 Wall St. at Mallory Square, for a lively Latin dance party. The gala is to begin at 9:30 p.m. and feature the rhythms of the popular band Caribe. Admission is free.

Saturday, May 24, El Meson is to be the site of a cigar dinner and silent auction that celebrate Key West’s cigar-making legacy. Presented by the Fuente Newman Cigar Co. and starting at 7 p.m., the night is to include a full dinner, wine and a selection of fine cigars.

The cost of this quintessential Cuban-style evening is $75 per person. For reservations, call Jose Diaz at (305) 360-0738.

Sunday morning is to bring a fun-filled party for children and families. The Fiesta de Niños is to be staged at the White Street Pier overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at White Street and Atlantic Boulevard. Scheduled activities include an old-fashioned children’s fishing tournament and a traditional domino tournament for kids, grandparents and attendees of all ages. Admission is free.

If the fiesta sparks an appetite for Latin cuisine, “A Taste of Havana” should satisfy it. Starting at 7 p.m. Sunday, diners can enjoy a progressive dinner featuring outstanding food from Key West’s leading Latin restaurants. Participants will be whisked from place to place by trolley during the unique progressive dinner.

For more information about the Cuban American Heritage Festival, visit www.cubanfest.com or call (305) 295-9665.

For lodging information in Key West, contact the Key West Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-LAST-KEY (800-527-8539) or visit the Florida Keys & Key West Web site at www.fla-keys.com.

Key West, Florida Keys — Nature lovers can enjoy an exhibition and sale of rare plants, tour the lush and lovely gardens surrounding five private Key West homes, explore Key West’s two premier public gardens and expand their horticultural knowledge at educational workshops during Gardenfest Key West, scheduled Friday through Sunday, Feb. 22-24.

The festivities are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, with a wine tasting and plant preview at the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, 5210 College Road, the only frost-free tropical moist forest garden in the continental United States. Visitors who join either the club or the society are admitted free, and members receive a 10 percent discount on their Friday night plant purchases.

Gardenfest is presented jointly by the Key West Garden Club and the Key West Botanical Garden Society.

All day Saturday and Sunday, visitors to the Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden can view and purchase native plants, fruit trees, exotic palms, orchids, bromeliads, flowering plants and more, as well as nature-themed art and crafts.

Private garden tours are scheduled 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The $20 per person price includes complimentary shuttle service to all five private gardens from the Key West Garden Club headquarters at West Martello Tower, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at 1100 Atlantic Blvd., as well as shuttle service to the Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden.

Tickets for the garden tours are available at the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden and the Key West Garden Club headquarters, or by calling the organizations at (305) 296-1504 or (305) 294-3210. Credit cards are accepted.

Visitors also can explore the forest and garden, a rich and diverse environment whose attractions include tropical fruit trees, native fragrant plants, native palms, tropical spices and local herbs, champion trees, butterflies and birds.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days a series of free educational workshops on horticultural subjects is to be presented.

For more information, visit www.keywestbotanicalgarden.org or www.keywestgardenclub.com.

Given her lifelong love of dolphins and familiarity with the Florida Keys, Mary Stella is a natural to serve as media relations coordinator at Dolphin Research Center on Grassy Key in the middle Florida Keys.

Mary’s passion for her job is evident as she walks around the boardwalks at DRC greeting the resident dolphins. The open-air facility is an extension of the open water, with tiki huts throughout and lagoons where research and programming take place.

Stella first laid eyes on the friendly dolphins in the early 1960s as a New Jersey native vacationing in the Florida Keys with her parents. She was instantly hooked.

“Growing up at the Jersey shore we loved to fish, swim and spend time on the water, so the Keys were the perfect winter vacation destination,” said Stella.

She recalls her initial visit to Santini’s Porpoise Training School in the middle Keys - home to Mitzi, one of the stars in the first Flipper feature film, along with numerous other dolphins.

“At the end of the show, all children who could swim and were wearing bathing suits lined up at one dock and jumped into the front lagoon, one at a time, for a dorsal tow with Mitzi,” Stella said. “That was my very first close-up introduction to dolphins and my first dolphin swim. I still have home movies of the adventure.”

Each year when vacationing in the Keys, Stella made a point of revisiting the dolphins at Santini’s, which later evolved into Dolphin Research Center. DRC opened its doors in 1984, and by 1989 she had become a donor member of the nonprofit organization. Her involvement over the next few years led to a five-week volunteer stint in the winter of 2000.

“Those five weeks were amazing,” Stella said. “I got to know DRC, the dolphins and the people on a deeper level and was completely invested in the DRC mission.”

By the end of 2001, she had moved to the Keys and was a full-time DRC employee.

Even early on, Stella’s love of dolphins led to environmental advocacy on their behalf. In the 1980s she wrote letters to tuna companies asking them to support dolphin-safe fishing practices.

“I convinced all my co-workers at the advertising agency where I worked at the time to not eat tuna until the companies came around,” she recalled.

Today, her work involves talking and writing about DRC’s “residents” -dolphins A.J., Aleta, Calusa, Delphi, Kibby, Merina, Molly, Pandora, Pax, Rainbow, Sandy, Santini, Talon, Tanner, Theresa and Tursi, and sea lions Kilo and Loki. She knows them as individuals and friends who make her smile by responding to her when she walks past their lagoons.

Advocating about DRC’s mission and programs to both guests and members of the media also is part of her job.

“I am blessed to work with a phenomenal group of people who are deeply passionate and committed to their work,” Stella said. “Knowing that what each of us does benefits dolphins, manatees, other marine life and the environment provides a great deal of personal satisfaction and is incredibly rewarding.”

Dolphin Research Center offers a wide variety of programs for visitors including Trainer for a Day, Researcher for a Day, Dolphin Encounter, Dolphin Splash, Meet the Dolphin and even Paint with a Dolphin. A program for individuals with special needs also is available.

Research is another component of the work at DRC. Recent findings of a study at the center showed that dolphins can complete simple mathematical computations - an astounding discovery that gives new insight into their intelligence.

Stella’s experiences at DRC, she says, are among the primary reasons she loves her job. For example, one day she was taking her lunch break beside one of the lagoons and Pandora, a young dolphin resident, playfully made eye contact and tossed her a toy ring. Stella tossed it back and the game continued for some time, with guests getting in on the fun, too.

Involvement in DRC’s special needs programs is another of Mary Stella’s joys.

“I’ve had the privilege of experiencing some beautiful things taking place with people who have special needs and come to interact with the dolphins,” she said.

She spoke of one particular group of deaf students who visited DRC in 2006 and learned to communicate with the dolphins using hand signals. “To see the students’ joy and excitement over this experience really touched my heart.”

In addition to her work at DRC, Mary is a published romance novelist with two romantic comedies set in the Keys under her belt and a third on the way. She credits writing as her strongest form of creative expression -something she has loved since childhood and considers a great gift.

Stella also is a saltwater aquarium hobbyist. At the end of the day, she enjoys relaxing by staring at the fish and corals in her 54-gallon live reef tank, which she calls “a living work of art in my living room.”

Mary Stella’s work at DRC is completely in harmony with her philosophy of life: “Instead of focusing on things that only benefit ourselves, each of us needs to contribute to the world at large,” she said. “The good that we put out in the universe benefits all living things.”

KEY WEST, Florida Keys — Twenty-six species of Florida Keys plants and trees from the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden are on display in Washington, D.C., this summer as part of an exhibit titled “Celebrating America’s Public Gardens.”

The Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden is one of 20 U.S. garden institutions invited to participate in the exhibit, spearheaded by the United States Botanic Garden and the American Public Gardens Association to celebrate the diversity and importance of the nation’s public gardens.

The Florida Keys garden exhibit stands on the terrace of the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory, located on the National Mall at the foot of the U.S. Capitol. It was designed and constructed by a Keys team that journeyed to Washington from the Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden.

Species represented in the exhibit — many of them endangered — include the buccaneer palm, Florida thatch palm, satinwood tree, locust berry shrub, Florida silver palm and lignum vitae tree.

Created to suggest a tropical hardwood forest, the Keys garden display features plant labels explaining how early settlers used the flora in their daily lives as well as informative signage detailing the biodiversity of the Florida Keys.

The Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, the only frost-free tropical moist forest garden in the continental United States, is a 15-acre tract containing more than 600 species of trees and plants, including more than 60 endangered species. Attractions include a visitor and biodiversity center, waterfall courtyard, three self-guided tours, 1.5-acre butterfly habitat and nature chapel.

Located at 5210 College Road, the Key West garden is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 15 through Oct. 15 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 15 through June 15. Admission is free.
The exhibit in Washington, also free, can be viewed daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 8, 2007.

For more information, visit www.keywestbotanicalgarden.org.