Did we really leave my last blog merely at breakfast on our first full day? New Orleans really has so much to offer, I don’t even know how to fit it all in! Anyway, back to District Donuts — a haven of cool, lavender-flavored iced lattes and delicious fried chicken and donuts. What better way to start the day? With an open-concept kitchen, you get to enjoy seeing your food prepared in front of you while you impatiently wait.

After a filling and fulfilling start to the day, we walked back to Le Pavillon and rested a bit before strolling over to Canal Street and down to Outlook Collection at Riverwalk. We really were woefully unprepared for the heat and needed to pick up a few lighter-weight items. All that shopping almost made us late to get ready for our evening entertainment — a good old-fashioned paddlewheel cruise on the Mississippi River. Run by Gray Line Lighthouse Tours, the City of New Orleans paddlewheel steamboat was ablaze with Christmas wreaths and bows. Although the ship offered dinner service, we opted to stay on the fourth deck with the jazz band and bar. Sadly, the heat from the day did not carry over, and we managed to underdress for the cruise — live and learn, am I right?

Thoroughly chilled and finding it a bit late on a Thursday to catch an open restaurant, we chose to wander back over to Canal Street and grab a quick meal at Fogo de Chão. While most people don’t think of any meal at Fogo de Chão as a “quick one,” the Brazilian steakhouse also allows customers to order one specific cut to be brought out in place of the rotating meat service. With a great special offered on bottles of wine, we were able to indulge without breaking the bank for our first dinner out. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, we decided to savor a Tres Leches cake following our meal (we don’t usually do dessert at the same place as dinner) and weren’t disappointed.

We called it a night after dinner and got our rest before the busiest day of the trip; this included a walking tour, po’boys and gumbo at a local gem, live jazz at Preservation Hall and much more.

Stay tuned … .

— Yasser Ogando, advertising & production manager