Your perfect day in New Orleans...

Speaking as a tourist who has been to NOLA several times, a day is not long enough. BUT...if you've never been to the city before I'd start with a carriage ride through the Quarter. You get a nice little history, a few tales, a look at the significant places, and a chance to spot restaurants and places like that you want to check out. Go to Jackson Square to catch a mule buggy. Then walk up to Canal and catch a streetcar to the Garden District. Check out Lafayette Cemetery. Get there and get out of there by 2:30 p.m. because the gates close. Then just walk a bit, observe the lovely homes. Catch your streetcar back to the Quarter. Make sure you go inside St. Louis Cathedral because it is the most beautiful building in America. It kicks the **** out of Cinderella's Castle for wondrousness. Walk down Royal for some nice shops where you can find something wonderful. Also, there is a cool shop on St. Phillip (I think) called New Orleans Lapidary where you can pick her up a spangly bauble for an anniversary present.

That's what I've got off the top of my head. Then you will decide to go back and stay a couple days sometime and do more stuff.