I didn't think it was too hot that weekend, but the humidity was excessive for me.

However, even knowing that beforehand, I'd still have come. And I'd go someplace hotter and more humid as well, 'cuz 1) Buffistas, and 2) who know where we'll go the year after that that will be nicer for me but less pleasant for somebody else. It's only for an extended weekend.

F2F ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE!!

What?

I didn't think the heat was that bad when we started the zoo trip but by the end I started feeling sick from the heat. And I live in FL!

That's not desert! This time next year you'd be all, "Yeah, it wasn't humid, but I was freezing my goddamn nuts off."

It's supposed to be hot in New Orleans. That's why you go inside to air-conditioned places and eat and drink.

This time next year you'd be all, "Yeah, it wasn't humid, but I was freezing my goddamn nuts off."

Yeah, but we'd all agree. There'd be no one saying "Really? I thought it was quite balmy. Hm."

F2F ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE!!

You want to have the F2F in your evil lair?

You want to have the F2F in your evil lair?

Hell, no! Who wants to clean up after you guys? You're animals!

Hell, no! Who wants to clean up after you guys? You're animals!

Why do you think I stick around?

Coming way, way late to this, but I'd be all over the weekend of June 4.

If DC was humid, I don't want to think about NOLA.

Bah. Having come to DC straight from NOLA, I say again Bah! NOLA was hot and humid with many mitigating factors; DC was the fucking Gobi Desert. I'm a sunlight-loving heat-seeking lizard-on-a-rock-basking-in-the-noonday-sun kind of a girl, and I found the heat of DC utterly unfuckingbearable compared to NOLA.

The difference (and, bear in mind, I've only spent 8 days of my life in NOLA so I am speaking almost entirely ex cloaca) was in the physical structure of the specific neighborhoods we spent most of the NOLA and DC time in.

The French Quarter in NOLA, where the Buffistas would likely spend the bulk of their time, has lots of very narrow single-lane streets with two and three-story buildings slap up against the sidewalk. There's at the very most a 2-hour period at midday when there's no shade; all the rest of the time, either one side of the street or the other is always cool and shady; there are shops, bars, restaurants and hotels everywhere with their doors cracked open giving you a nice cool breeze licking the back of your neck every 15 paces or so, and consequently also lots of places to duck into if the heat is really awful, and hide for a bit while sipping a Pimm's cup or browsing through racks of corsets (or, if the heat and light get truly oppressive, poking about in the parasol shop for some more old-fashioned sunblock [no, really, there's a parasol shop in the French Quarter! It's fucking brill!]).

Hec and I got to DC at around five on Saturday, latter end of the day, just a couple of hours from sunset, and nearly baked to a crisp on the 4-block walk from the metro station to the hotel. Big wide streets on which all the large stately buildings were set far far back behind big majestic lawns and courtyards and iron fences with skinny bars, far too far back to give any shade at all to the sidewalks. A relative paucity of bars and restaurants and corset and parasol shops to offer shelter and cool gentle breezes. Nowhere near enough trees. That one short walk from the station to the hotel was worse than the entire seven days in NOLA. I swear I saw a sidewalk DC-souvenir-shirt vendor fall over, die of heat prostration, and then spontaneously combust, leaving behind only a pile of greasy ashes and a heat-warped sun visor.

(Also, Teppy will forever be my hero for actually taking off her shoes and walking barefoot to dinner; I'm, seriously and truly, humbled and amazed and vastly in her debt. Also, I'm taking charge of her feet at the next F2F if she'll let me in on the secret of her shoe size.)

Anyhow, to sum up: NOLA, hatefully heatful but with many, many mitigating circumstances (plus, so many nighttime activities, ranging from ghost and vampire tours starting at 9 p.m. to nice, cool, funky, non-touristy bars and restaurants open all night, that it's entirely possible to circumvent daylight altogether and still have a lovely time); DC, hatefully heatful with rather less mitigation. And no Pimm's cups or bread pudding souffle.