I went to the Baltimore show in January. I been going for several
years, and if you're into woodworking and want to kill a some time, it
is interesting just to walk around and see and touch stuff you've only
seen in catalogues, or stuff you've never even seen. Some demos can be
convincing if you've already been leaning towards a purchase of for
example the "dubby". At the Balto show there was also woodworking
guilds displaying their work. The bridge city booth usually has a guy
cutting dovetails by hand (I can't recall if I saw him this year). Lee
Valley give 10% off the catalogue price - no taxes, no shipping. Not a
gloat, but a good deal. They also have a bench and some scraps so you
can try out the planes, saws and what not. I also saw a 1 hr
presentation from Graham Blackburn that was interesting

So for the price of a movie ticket you can kill about twice as much
time. And compared to the movies, the food is a bargain...

Mitch