This morning we walked over the the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. We found that hitting just about anyplace first thing in the morning gives us the best experience in terms of crowds and social distancing. Not sure if it is the overall laid back nature of the island or vacationers preferring to stay up and subsequently get up late. Morning hours also provide me with a bit of protection from the relatively low sun plus we get a solid 5 degree temperature dip. (Still waking up to 85 degrees, though.)

The home tour shares a number of interesting tidbits (prolific writer, prolific husband, etc.), but perhaps not so well known — at least from my schooling standpoint — is the prolific cat population. Hemingway received a special cat from a ship captain in the 1930’s. Named Snow White, her descendants continue to live on the property today. What made Snow White special is that she was polydactyly, which is a genetic trait that allows some with the gene to be born with extra toes.

All in all, we spent about a third of our time on the tour, a third walking the grounds and a third shooting and playing with the cats. (Shout out to Tenzing, Lovey and Thurston!)