Another NashVegas Run

I set off early this morning, well, okay, not THAT early, for another trip to NashVegas.

This time, the mission was, ostensibly, a trip to the airport, but included much great conversation and some seriously fun stops the first of which was for a Thai food lunch at Royal Thai on No. 19th Street. Both my friend, Monica, and I ordered the pad thai which we agreed was far too drenched in sauce and the rice noodles waaaay over stir fried. By accident, as it turns out, the waiter brought us spring rolls which were delicious.

The big hit of the lunch, however, was the Tom Kha Gai soup. This soup was so delicious it may have well revolutionized how I think about soup forever. In fact, just thinking about it now makes me a little misty. An aromatic chicken soup the primary ingredients of which also include coconut milk, lemon grass, mushrooms, lime juice, lime leaves (hard to find), fish sauce, and sugar (optional, but likely included in the recipe today), and basil or cilantro, this concoction is nothing short of heavenly. If you've never tried it? You must have some this minute.

After that, we made our required stop at the airport, then hurried over to Venice Nails where, framed photos at the entrance assured us, Hollywood luminaries such as: Nicole Kidman, JSimp, Faith Hill, and others have had their fingers and toes attended to. After a few minutes of careful consideration, we deemed the place worthy of our patronage as well.

New as I am to all this business of professional nail care, I was quite surprised at just how many chairs and stations were housed inside. These people had the capacity to easily do hundreds of nails at a time. We were met at the door by two ultra-efficient and beautiful Asian girls who quickly herded us over to choose a nail color.

After a fair amount of dithering, we made our selections*, then chose some magazines to read and were shooed into our throne like chairs which, incidentally, could be programmed to massage, in a variety of ways, any part or the entirety of our backs while our feet were given the red carpet treatment.

Ahhhhhh. So decadent.

For my part, this little excursion to was made possible by a generous birthday grant from the S-Man. Otherwise, I would certainly not be able to enjoy a session with Nicole Kidman's pedicurist. (See? I say nice things about the S-Man.)

So, there we were with our Vanity Fairs, our W's, our cool drinks, two lovely girls massaging and caring for our poor, poor, weary tootsies, and (AND) a nearby flat screen tuned to HGTV. They must have seen us coming at Venice Nails. Buddy pedicures are truly the Ultimate Girl Outing. (Well, almost. One has to consider New Orleans.)

Afterwards, we agreed a trip to a nearby Wild Oats was in order, inspired as we were by our Thai food experience at lunch. There we purchased many of the ingredients necessary for Tom Kha Gai soup along with a few other au naturale essentials before heading home.

If only a certain two travelers had experienced better luck with the airlines, it would have been a darn near perfect day.

[*Since William Sledd says navy blue is this season's "in" nail color, I of course had to search for it, finding only a deep purple the closest thing they had in stock. I settled for my usual: a shade of metallic fuscia.]

***

I alluded, in an earlier post, to a "spectacular view" I enjoyed over the weekend. The photo posted above, is a shot of that view that I enjoyed at dinner and beyond Saturday night along with some great wine, company, and food. I believe I have been forbidden to disclose the identity of my hosts, so I'll just tell you what I told them.

"I thought it was just dinner. You didn't say it was an extravaganza."

And, indeed, they didn't. But the thing is? There's something I didn't tell them as well. And that is that along with being a perfect evening for an awesome rooftop dinner, Saturday was also my birthday. I couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous setting or more gracious friends to spend it with.