Every girl I know (and half the guys) knows and loves Zappos.com. It is simply the best Internet shoe store - and possibly better than any brick-and-mortar shoe store. They have an enormous selection, free and fast shipping, and the best customer service around.

I was in Vegas this weekend, but I didn't do much shopping (which my wallet appreciated). Friday night, while picking up our car from the valet, I noticed a little flyer on the valet desk, “10% off your purchase from the Zappos.com Outlet.”

Not Zappos.com. Not Zappos.com Outlet! Brick-and-mortar? Real life? It was just outside of Vegas and happened to be on our way home to Los Angeles!

My husband had promised we could make one shopping stop on the way home. I gave up my trip to the State Line outlet mall (there is a Neiman Marcus and Kenneth Cole outlet not too far from us at home) in order to visit Zappos's real-life home.

I was bursting with excitement as we looked for the store. We found it, and I almost tucked-and-rolled out of the car while it was still moving. The moment the car stopped my husband waved me in and I went running.

The store is huge, with rows and rows of racks, each filled with shoeboxes. The racks were arranged in three rows. After a few minutes, I realized they were more or less organized by price range - the nicer, pricier shoes in front. After a few minutes in the back row, I realized I was far too much of a snob to want any of those shoes (they all looked like they came from the junior's department).

I must admit I was kind of disappointed in the selection. After all, there is a reason this is an outlet. The vast majority of shoes were the cheap-o ones in the back. I was really concerned I wouldn't find anything I liked, and that thought depressed me. Granted, I am horribly picky about my shoes, but I think this is what enables me to have such an excellent collection.

As I approached the end of the size-8 section, I found shoes I liked and breathed a sigh of relief. I would have been heartbroken if I had to leave the store empty-handed. I located the "Couture" section, off to the side of the store, and almost ran over. They had some lovely shoes, including a pair of mirrored Moschino flats and a pair of Givenchy wing-tip pumps, but none of them really grabbed me. I have been lusting over a pair of Rock & Republic wedges, and would rather spend the money on those.

There were three shoes in total I really liked, but only ended up getting two of them - moderately priced pumps that were marked down to around $60 each. The third pair, a pointy Kenneth Cole pump with double Mary Jane straps and an uneven pinky-gold color, I decided to leave behind. My husband told me they looked like something his grandmother would wear, and that kind of killed it for me.

Be on the look out for the shoes I purchased. One of them is rather sedate (well, for me), and the other is, well, one of the loudest, most obnoxious shoes I have ever seen.