Today is a big day in our household. In case you aren’t a football fan, the NFL worked through the lockout and the first game of the season is tonight. Green Bay Packers are hosting the New Orleans Saints. I know this because from September – January our weekend often revolves around the watching of football. I cannot make any joint plans on Sundays. My husband is a Giants fan, but seems like he’s tracking everything… the 1:00, 4:00, 8:00 games, plus Monday Night Football. Needless to say, when February rolls around, I consider our Super Bowl party one giant celebration to kick off my half of the year.

In honor of the evening’s proceedings, I’ve been saving this football-related a post. It features photos taken last season, on Halloween/game day for the Steeler/Saints. Before we even booked our trip to New Orleans, I vetoed going anywhere near the Superdome. Through a invitation of my friend Lisa, D and I still managed to crash a wonderfully civilized tailgate party run by Saints season ticket holders and Louisiana residents, Leetha and Lance.

First off, I would like to thank both Leetha and Lance for welcoming 2 Connecticut Yankees into their beautiful New Orleans home, for keeping the champagne glasses always filled and giving us the grand tour of their art-filled apartment. And thank you Lisa for bringing us to see yet another side of New Orleans.

I am in love with this drawing above the master bed. It’s done in graphite pencil and I believe the multiple panels are simply tacked to the wall with pushpins. It reminds me of something you’d find ‘in process’ on a studio wall.

Leetha and Lance are avid art collectors. Every wall of their New Orleans apartment is filled and there is a story behind each piece. I wish I had taken notes, but after a huge brunch at Patois and some general cocktailing in the French Quarter, you’ll see I didn’t even manage to meter most of these photos correctly.

Anyone counting all the fleur de lys in this post?

With a view like this, I would have been happy to stay here and watch Saints on tv, but eventually everyone piled into the elevator.  While the rest of the party walked to the game, we went to dinner and watched from the bar at Brennan’s.

In the end, I will admit defeat. We might as well have gone to the Superdome. Our servers paid far more attention to the TV than they did to us! It felt like the city came to a halt to root for the Saints. In case you were wondering: yes, the Saints won that night. The next morning, we departed New Orleans with a lot of disappointed Pittsburgh fans.

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If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember I had a great time eating my way through my first tailgate at a Seattle Seahawks game opening weekend of the 2008 – 2009 season. I am now 2 for 2 on exceptional NFL tailgating!