Keys Life
Guess what? Another holiday is here — the Fourth of July! Which means parades and, of course, fireworks.
The best thing about this holiday is its simplicity. Our only responsibility is to celebrate our great country’s independence, i.e., no presents to worry about.
Posted: Friday, July 03, 2009 11:00 AM EDT
Residents will be able to safely dispose of electronic items on Saturday, July 11.
Posted: Friday, July 03, 2009 11:00 AM EDT
There are more than 1,000 unique cigar boxes and labels on display at the San Carlos.
A new display at the San Carlos Institute on Duval Street in Key West is shedding light on one of the many bonds that tie the Southernmost City to our southern neighbor Cuba: Cigar making.
Posted: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 11:00 AM EDT
Jeff Bennett flew Sunny, a shepard mix, from Marathon to Tallahassee, where another pilot picked up the dog for his final destination, a new home in Philadelphia.
Jeff Bennett's a pilot with a mission – literally: “One of the biggest things we need to get out there is not only the need for the pilots, but also the need for spay and neuter" of pets, the Big Pine Key man says.
Posted: Monday, June 29, 2009 11:07 AM EDT
An officer with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office's marine unit checks a boat during a previous sport-diving lobster season. Agencies are increasing enforcement efforts with the summer season reaching its peak.
With the peak of summer boating season at hand, marine organizations and agencies are ramping up events to keep Florida Keys waters as safe as possible. And nowhere is the need for boating safety more critical: Monroe County had more significant boating accidents (98) and deaths (seven) than any other county in Florida last year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:00 AM EDT
This is Bahia Honda State Park looking from the beach near the entrance. That's U.S. 1 on the right, the old railroad bridge on the left.
State hikes all park entry fees starting on July 1
State parks in the Keys -- which include some of the most expensive in Florida -- get more expensive July 1. At most of the parks, daily admission fees will increase by $1.
Posted - Saturday, June 20, 2009 07:39 AM EDT
'TRAVEL CHANGES EVERYTHING'
Student’s travel essay wins contest
Coral Shores Valedictorian Jonathan Kaicher’s essay, “Travel Changes Everything,” was the winner of the CruiseOne, Islamorada essay contest, “Keys to Peace.”
Posted - Friday, June 19, 2009 11:00 AM EDT
John Halas (left), Upper Keys regional sanctuary manager, inspects a nonnative lionfish removed from the Key Largo reef by Lad Akins of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation.
Keys ocean pioneer gets his due, is named a world hero
When a boater hooks up to a mooring buoy at the Florida Keys reef, he uses what John Halas describes as the embedment anchoring system. Nearly everyone else calls it the Halas Mooring Buoy System.
Posted - Friday, June 19, 2009 09:50 AM EDT
This is the entire group that went out. The visitors and the locals had plenty in common -- their love of the oceans and hopes to find cooperative ways to protect them.
World Oceans Day really does go international
When divers headed out on June 8 to clean the Middle Keys reef of trash such as fishing line and the like, they returned to shore with not much to show for it.
And that's a good thing.
Posted - Wednesday, June 17, 2009 11:00 AM EDT
Veterans and emergency services voluteers carried the colors in the Key Largo Fourth of July parade.
FOURTH OF JULY EVENTS
Keys to celebrate nation’s independence
Unlike the mock celebrations of the Keys’ faux-independence (the “Conch Republic”), celebrating the Fourth of July is the real deal, and Keys residents like to show their colors and celebrate the nation’s Independence Day.
Posted - Friday, June 12, 2009 11:00 AM EDT