Hemingway Days

When we went to KW over the summer, we hoped we could stay long enough to participate in "Hemingway Days". This is an annual celebration of the life of Ernest "Papa" Hemingway and is held each year around his birthday which was July 21. The Hemingway Days celebration has a lot of activities such as the Papa Hemingway Look-alike Contest, readings of some of his works at local galleries, the Running of the Bulls, a Marlin Tournament, and the 5k Sunset Road Race. Here is my choice for the 2010 Papa Hemingway look-alike winner!

Key West knows how to throw a party. For Hemingway Days, early in the day they closed  Duval Street to cars to get ready for the events!

By late moring, the street vendors and crafters were all there and everyone came out and had a great time.

Around noon,  the Papa's started to appear around Sloppy Joes bar.

 

Although the Running of the Bulls didn't start until 1:00 pm, I think the Papa's came early to be sure the bulls were healthy and feed and up for the Run.

While the Papa's were waiting for the race, I decided to climb up on the bull!

Lead by the KW Boys in Blue.....

... the bulls started to run. Well, they never actually ran because all the Papa's were drinking beer and didn't want to spill any.

I'm not sure who won the race or if anyone even made it to the finish line. But it was certainly a lot of laughs and everyone had a great time. Meanwhile at the Marlin Tournament, they caught only one marlin. They didn't bring it in because they can only catch-and-release Marlins. But this team caught a huge yellow tale snapper which they did bring in.

 

Neal and I decided to run in the 5K Sunset Run. And, as we probably have told you, we each won in "in our class" (aka old people class). We were pretty surprised- and happy. Not too shabby, huh!

It was a great celebration and we had a lot of fun. And like most birthdays, no celebration is complete without a birthday cake. It was delicious!

Happy Birthday, Ernest!