Hemingway Days!

Happy 116th birthday, Ernest Hemingway!

So I've developed sort of a Hemingway obsession over the past several months. I've always been kind of intrigued by the idea of him and I love that he's known for living in, writing in, and visiting some awesome and exotic places. I just find him to be such an interesting and complicated person, in spite of (or maybe even because of) his more well-known, less admirable traits. I've read a couple of his books over the past few years, but I have yet to read any of the ones he famously wrote while living in Key West. I've been so wrapped up in learning ABOUT him recently that I haven't gotten around to reading most of his works themselves. But I do have a 4-in-1 collection of some of those most famous novels sitting on my bookshelf, just waiting to be read.

What kind of started me off on this little kick was about 6 months ago, when I finally picked up A Moveable Feast. It had been sitting on my bookshelf, unread, for longer than I care to admit. But it was a great introduction to the early part of Hemingway's career and took you, memoir-style, through his struggles living and writing in Paris in the 1920s. I didn't know this while reading it, but he actually wrote A Moveable Feast a few decades later, at the very end of his life. It was published posthumously by his widow (and 4th wife) Mary Hemingway.

Throughout the book, there were glimpses in to his relationship with his first wife Hadley. Much of it was very sweet and pure, until it wasn't. After finishing the book I moved right on to The Paris Wife, which had ALSO been sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me to get around to it. The Paris Wife is the story of Hemingway's first wife, written as a first-person narrative from her perspective. Most of the book centered around those years they spent together in Paris, and while some of it was clearly speculative, it gave a good look into what their life was like and the sad way it all fell apart at the end. It was through a combination of both of The Paris Wife and A Moveable Feast that made me despise Hemingway's second wife, Pauline. She became Hadley's best friend and immersed herself into their lives before edging her out and stealing Ernest away. To be fair, he allowed himself to be stolen and Hadley didn't put up much of a fight. But I'm still glad that Pauline got hers, years later, when Ernest kicked her to the curb and married his third wife Martha Gellhorn. Ha.

So anyway, after finishing The Paris Wife, I went on to somewhat of an actual Hemingway biography, Hemingway's Boat. Yet another book that had been sitting on the shelf. (Can you tell I love to collect books? I'll get them all read some day.) I am still in the middle of this one, but it centers around the symbol of Hemingway's beloved boat "Pilar" and the comings and goings of his life in the almost 30 years that he owned her. It's really good so far and just makes me want to learn more!

I kind of like the round-about way I've come into this whole thing and feel like the timeline of it all is actually going to end up making really good sense when I finally do pick up those unread stories. Through reading about Hemingway, his life and his writing process, I've gained some insight into some of his other books. I've learned which characters are based on certain people from his life, why he wrote some of them, where he was and what he was doing when he had the experiences that he eventually wrote about, etc. I sometimes find his writing style a little hard to follow if I'm not paying very close attention, so this helps give me a more well-rounded understanding of the context surrounding his stories and the events in the books themselves.

So on to Hemingway Days! Every summer around the week of July 21st, Key West puts on a little celebration in honor of Hemingway's (fascinating/crazy/tumultuous) life. This year was the 35th year and they had a bunch of stuff going on, like a Hemingway museum exhibit, 116th birthday party, Caribbean Street Fair on Duval Street, "Papa" Hemingway look-a-like contest, marlin fishing tournament, sunset 5k, etc. Earlier this summer, I was looking online for some local races and came across the Hemingway Sunset 5k in Key West. The registration was a little pricier than most of the other 5ks I saw, so that and the fact that it was in Key West, I kind of wrote it off because I knew Jake probably wouldn't go for it. Buuuttttt.... my Hemingway obsession has grown a little more since then, and when an advertisement popped up in my news feed last week (gotta love data-mining), I made my case known. How often do you get to run a 5k in Key West, in honor of Hemingway, at sunset?? Besides, I had categorized it as a bona-fide Bucket List item. Jake can't say no to me because he loves me, so we made plans to make it happen.

I found a good last-minute deal on a cute little room in Old Town, and we left on Friday as soon as Jake got home from work. We made pretty good time and got there right around dinner time, so we unloaded all our stuff and had a little night out in Key West. :)

Our cute tiny little room :)

Most of the celebrations took place at Sloppy Joe's. Hemingway was friends with the owner and used to hang out here and write here after it moved from its original location, which is now Captain Tony's.

Hemingway hung out here when it was Sloppy Joe's, before Joe moved to his new location.

Inside Captain Tony's.... bras and dollar bills everywhere

After sunset at Mallory Square

 The next morning we woke to overcast skies, which was perfect and just fine with us, since it meant that the 90 degree forecast might feel a little more bearable with no blazing sun overhead. We checked out of our hotel and headed straight to Hemingway's house.  Jake will tell you that we paid $13 to get in so that I could take pictures of cats. That's only partly true. While I did mean to get some six-toed cat pics, I also was really excited to see and walk through the house that Hemingway once lived in.

The story behind the famous six-toed cats. I want one!

They look like they're wearing little mittens, with the thumb sticking out.

Ernest's writing studio!

We weren't allowed on Ernest's bed.

Some of Hemingway's personal book collection. The rest of them are in Havana, where he lived after he left Key West. The open books on display had personal inscriptions to Hemingway.

A model of Hemingway's beloved boat, Pilar

The first swimming pool in Key West

  

Kind of hard to see through the scratched plexiglass, but the story of the penny goes something like this: Hemingway was super p.o.-ed at Pauline for spending $20,000 on the swimming pool, so he took a penny out of his pocket and threw it down on the ground and yelled something about her spending his last cent. She supposedly took the penny and pressed it into the wet cement.

Jake in front of the trellis in the wedding area... We will be renewing our vows here some day, just so you all know. ;)

I sat down to pose with a cat, but he ran away.

After Hemingway's house we walked down Duval Street and checked out the Caribbean Street Fair. It was really just typical tents with vendors selling clothing, jewelry, stuff made out of wood, etc. Nothing special or notably "Caribbean." We were headed for Sloppy Joes because at noon, the Papa look-a-likes were doing photo opps! They were all dressed like Hemingway in his older days, with his white hair and beard, and they all had their Pamplona outfits on. Hemingway used to frequent the bull fights in Spain, so that's where this aspect came from. At 1:00, they did a mock running of the bulls which sadly we missed because we had walked too far back up Duval Street and wouldn't have made it back in time. The look-a-like contest culminated later that night with the final winner, which happened to be a guy from Palm Beach Gardens, not too far up 95 from where we are!

Kind of the highlight of my day. I was really excited for this :)

Throughout the rest of the day, we wandered around and stopped in at some of the different things that were going on for Hemingway Days. We tried to catch the marlin weigh-in at the docks, but none of the boats were back yet when we were in that area. We picked up our race packets and had dinner, and then there was a lot of waiting around until 7:30, when the 5k was supposed to start. By the time race time came around, we had already walked probably 5 miles that day, plus probably a couple more from the night before, and still had 3.1 to go! But the race was really fun, and it was really cool to run through the streets of Key West and past Hemingway's house. People were standing outside the bars/restaurants cheering us on and high-five-ing everyone who came through. At the end we collected our medals, ate some watermelon, took a pic, and that was pretty much it! Thankfully we were parked close by, so we got in the car and headed home. Made it in less than 4 hrs! :) Looking forward to coming back in a few months when my parents come visit!!!

Standing at the Southernmost Point looking towards the starting line

pre race (in my new Hemingway t-shirt!)

post race!