So we drove to Pittsburgh to help check out the facilities for Anthrocon 2006, and we drove back. That was fun.

What, you want more detail? Well, for that you can just keep on reading.

Takaza and I drove out from Chicago at a hair after noon on Friday. We had elected to split the drive there into easy chunks, so I decided to see if I couldn’t get a good deal on a room for Friday night. A little Priceline shopping and bang, we had a lovely, comfortable room at the Holiday inn Select in Strongsville, OH (just south of Cleveland Intl. Airport) for $53.00 (regular rate: $113 per night). Oh yeah, we’ll be doing that again. The drive to Strongsville was only five and a half hours, leaving us ample time to get a leisurely dinner and do a bit of last-minute shopping.

The next morning, we left at around 9:30 (after a stop at a nearby Panera for breakfast) and found that the drive to Pittsburgh was only two hours. When we got to Pennsylvania, we received a nice surprise: the Pennsylvania Turnpike is transitioning away from the old ticket system and going to simple toll collection; even better they are going to EZ-Pass, which is compatible with Illinois’ I-Pass transponders. This makes the $3.00 toll going into the state a breeze! We quickly found our way to Pittsburgh (only 50 miles into Pennsylvania, as opposed to the 3,428 miles you have to go to Philadelphia once you cross over from Ohio). Our original plan was to stop by Primanti Brothers, a sandwich restaurant that had gotten rave reviews in a food blog I read. The place is in the middle of the Strip District (less than a mile from the Westin), which didn’t mean much to me when I first heard it. It turns out that the Strip District is a funky shopping/entertainment district that seemed to be Ground Zero for rabid Steelers fans – the place was packed! We inched through the stop and go traffic and though we finally located the restaurant there wasn’t a parking space to be had. We decided that we’d had a big breakfast and could skip lunch, and proceeded to the Westin – Convention Center.

We met Tigerwolf in the lobby and chatted a while with the hotel sales representative and one of the hotel engineers. We got some good insights into the hotel, and found the rep to be very personable and helpful. unclekage and bigtig joined us not long after, and petercat shortly after that. We got a tour of the Westin’s function space, and I have to say I’m very impressed. It’s not my place to talk about what’s going where, especially since that’s subject to change, but I will say that the function space is on the second and third floors of the hotel, easily accessible by escalator from the (smallish) lobby. The prefunction area on the second floor is sure to be a gathering space, but the space tentatively planned for use as The Zoo is absolutely enormous and is sure to please people with both its size and its convenience. As a treat for giza, we had to take a picture of one of the nice little screens the hotel has outside of each room for the day’s schedule. Apparently, sometimes the software can have some problems. The hotel has a nice lap pool and hot tub and a spiffy fitness center (that costs $9 to use – it’s actually a private gym). We got a quick tour of some of the suites: very impressive. The corner suites are quite comfortable, and bigger than the ones at the Wyndham last year.

After the tour of the hotel, we walked over to the Convention Center to meet with our contact there. The Convention Center is accessible by a skybridge from the hotel. First we went to Hall C on the second floor, which will house the Art Show, Dealers Room, and Artists Alley. It is simply enormous, with lots of nice options for loading equipment in and out (that the Teamsters will be there to “assist” with, of course). From there we got a quick tour from above from one of the service corridors. Then it was up to the third floor to see the huge prefunction area, the five programming rooms, and the gigantic Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom (which can seat up to 3,000).

After we wrapped up the tours, we adjourned for dinner at August Henry’s a nice little joint right around the corner from the hotel. A quick word here about the area around the hotel: it’s nice and clean, and has the look of a typical downtown. There are many restaurants within walking distance (even an Uno Grill and coffee place adjacent tot he hotel), and there’s a convenience store right across from the hotel. (Unconfirmed) rumor has it that a Kinko’s is going to be open on the first floor of the Convention Center by June, too. So anyway, dinner was excellent as was the company, and the $3 Long Island iced teas were really as good as Kage promised. Afterwards, we scattered to the four winds, with Tigerwolf, Kage, and Bennie heading out, and Petercat opting to skip the room he had at the Westin to try to beat a snowstorm back to New York. That left us as the only ones spending the night at the Westin. Our room (a standard king) was quite comfortable and the “Heavenly Bed” lived up to its billing.

Sunday morning we were slow to get moving, but finally hit the road a little after 9 AM. The trip back was made a bit difficult by some high winds and blowing snow, but we were able to stick to the speed limit and got home in good time.

If you didn’t read through all of the above, you can find pictures from our trip in our gallery (plus others that aren’t linked from the text above). The drive is pretty easy, 7.5 hours. The tolls are pricey: $2.50 for the Chicago Skyway, $4.65 for the Indiana Toll Road, $8.95 for the Ohio Turnpike, and $3.00 for the Pennsylvania Turnpike (eastbound only, for now anyway – no toll was collected westbound). As for driving directions, follow the directions on the hotel’s website, not the signs on the interstate – the hotel’s are much easier.

My final take on the facilities: it’s all incredible. It’s huge, yes, but there is no limit to growth imposed by the facilities. The cost of the nice digs, though, is a lot more walking than congoers are used to. I think that will take a bit of cultural adjustment and there’s sure to be complaints, but the amount of walking looks worse than it really is, and once you’ve walked from the hotel to Hall C and back you can see that it’s not too bad. This was a good move for Anthrocon, and I think it will be well-served by it in the future.