A chill is in the air...finally!

It's early November and the weather folks are saying we'll be down to 45 degrees tonight.   Today, the high was just 64.   For those of us who have six-month summers, we'll take it!   The next few months will bring the traditional New Orleans winter weather mix of comfortable days and cool nights with the occasional cold front dropping things to the near-freezing mark.    As owners of old houses, we hate that but it's a part of life.  :-)

Halloween 2010 was one of the most spectacular we can remember...if you've never been to New Orleans during a "special event" such as Halloween or Carnival season, you're missing out.  It's crowded but so much fun.   As usual, our guests had a blast and are already talking about their next visits to the Big Easy.   We're just a few weeks away from both New Years and the Mardi Gras season, too!

Reshaping Our City

It's been nearly five years since Katrina's floodwaters (and an inferior levee system!) swamped our city.    You'll no doubt see "where are they now?" broadcasts ad nauseum over the next 14 days.   I think every network has their own version of Anderson Cooper ready to trot down to "New Orleenz" for a couple of days' worth of coverage.

Locally, however, I'm starting to get really optimistic that we've finally turned THE corner.   The city is being rebuilt, literally.   Our new mayor, Mitch Landrieu, just announced about $700 million worth of already-funded projects.   Some are in the design phase, some are "shovel-ready" and others are underway.    Lots of repaving, new school buildings, new libraries, new fire and police stations, massive new hospitals and even renovations to the fabulous New Orleans Museum of Art are included in this comprehensive citywide plan.

Our local schoolchildren have a dizzying array of choices when it comes to education, including more charter schools than in any other U.S. city.   We're adding to the freedom of school choice with some great new facilities.   Last week, my jaw dropped when I saw the photos of the new L.B. Landry High School in Algiers.    What was once a pretty ragged school is now gorgeous.   Ditto for campuses throughout the city.

Our Super Bowl champions have a new "Champions Square" under construction where the wrecked New Orleans Centre mall once stood.   Next door to the Superdome, it will give Saints fans a place to tailgate.  It's something the footballers of this city have wanted for decades.

Even the downtrodden Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is getting in on the act.   A new expansion/renovation project worth hundreds of millions of dollars is underway.   Quite honestly, the airport isn't great now.   It has the potential to be great when this is all done!   (A nonstop flight to Europe would be cool, too!)

Optimism ebbs and flows around here, it seems, but I'm really looking forward to the new face of New Orleans in a few years!

No more "slow" summers in New Orleans!

Summertime, and the living is easy.   Love the expression, but summer has always been considered the "dead zone" of the New Orleans calendar.   No longer!

June was very busy at the B&B, with every weekend full and quite a bit of weekday business.   Guests all commented that they liked the fact that it was busy but still easy to get tables at the top restaurants, etc.

July 4 marked perhaps the largest Essence Music Festival to date.  Combined with a convention in town, rooms were nearly impossible to get...that never happens in the summer!

Today, ten thousand American Idol hopefuls are jammed outside New Orleans Arena hoping for a shot at stardom.   Would be very fun if the next Idol is from NOLA!    Over the weekend, thousands of people participated in Tales of the Cocktail events.  Restaurants and bars were packed!

Next week is the Satchmo Summerfest, a musical salute to Louis Armstrong.  It's really grown in the past 3-4 years. In fact, we now have repeat guests for this event!  The art galleries are in on the summer vibe, too, with the White Linen (Arts District) and Dirty Linen (Royal Street) gallery openings/street parties slated for mid August.    Also mid month is the wacky Red Dress Run through the French Quarter.   Pretty wild to see all those hairy guys in red dresses.   Some looked good...some don't.

Closing out the summer is Southern Decadence, the gay Mardi Gras.   Hotels are reporting strong advance bookings for that event, too!

So, it seems maybe we need to readjust our "summer is just too hot" thought patterns to "summer is HOT!"