Prior to leaving Chicago & despite a slight feeling of betrayal, I loaded my kindle w Hemingway books that lay heavily worn in tatters, w circled & underlined passages & dogeared pages, crammed into the bookshelf my dad made me as I’ve read them many times over. Perhaps it’s a bit cliche, but it felt pretty good re-reading The Old Man and the Sea as I visited Cojimar, a tiny little fishing village that was home to Ernie’s fishing boat, Pilar, as well as his friend & the village on which the story is based. I have a long lasting love affair w his work which means I also felt his home on a hill outside Havana was a must-see (where Ava Gardner, on whom I recall my dad having a bit of a crush, scandalously swam naked in his pool) along w the Havana hotel in which he holed up writing For Whom the Bell Tolls and countless bars he frequented, including the one where he popularized the daiquiri &, in a record that still holds, he took down 13 doubles in one sitting. What an animal. I like his Havana.