$129 a night for "premium" suite at Wyndam Hotel. One block down from the Convention center. Two double beds in main room, pull out couch in a separate area that could be closed off with french doors. Two flat screen wall mounted TVs (one in each area). Clean and spacious. Super friendly staff. Unfortunately the pool was closed due to construction. I would stay there again.
When we were at Origins, we never left the venue. Nothing to see, nothing to do.
St. Louis is a place worth getting back to. MetroLink was great. Took it to Laclede's Landing for dinner at Hannigans one night, spaghetti factory the next night. Also did the Arch. Plan to do Union Station next year.
Now that we've all been there, we will be in better shape to get food (subway, quiznos was a HOT 4 block walk) and not rely on what's in the convention center. Loved the starbucks right across the street, and the deli down the block that was selling icecold bottled water 2 for a$1.
It was also really nice to have everything Pokemon related in one room, esp. for those of us with kids we're trying to keep an eye on. And not having to spend the $50 entry fee was a huge savings. Overall, Nats at St. Louis was about $200 cheaper for us than Nats in Ohio. Cheaper hotel, cheaper transportation from the airport, cheaper food options, and no entry fee.
Excellent prior post, Doug. I also got to stay in that kind of room Wednesday night, and it was very nice! The pull-out bed had a weak mattress, but that was fine for what it was.
St. Louis was a ghost town, though. This helped Lafonte find a baseball field to play softball on, but made the city less amusing and fun. There was a *** pride festival AND a community festival always going on in Columbus during Nationals which made the city BOOMING with people. I wish there was more variety in the restaurants. I got to eat at a nice Italian place (with you!), ate at my new favorite restaurant-
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&i...1338745192291502&ei=TK9NSsXJEpiOMvmQxYYK&cd=1
The BEST Chinese Food: Hunan Manor. Unlike many Chinese restaurants, this place was not crowded at ALL- we went during dinner hour and lunch hour, and had immediate and consistent, perfect service. The sweet and sour chicken was actually more chicken than dough, which surprised me. The orange beef was superb. The egg drop soup was good. They had an amazing and cheap lunch buffet too. It was easily the best Chinese food I've had for its price.
But all in all, I felt little variety for this place. Lots of places were also closed Sunday or after 3o'clock, so it made planning unfortunate. We missed going to a barbecue place twice because it was closed. We missed an Italian restaurant after 3, and our favorite Chinese restaurant Sunday. A friend got sick while eating at Caleco's, so we avoided that place.
The city had a rather unpleasantness about it though. It didn't particularly smell good, but it did not have many homeless people or traffic at all. It wasn't dirty, it was just kind of decaying.
I would much rather have Nationals at a bigger city like Chicago, Philadelphia, LA/SD, Seattle, NYC would be awesome to have a Nationals at.
Keep it out of the south! I am from Florida, but we do a LOT of walking. Let's have a Nationals up north please! This heat wave sucked =(
Kansas City is a place to live and work, not to visit.
