I've been to the Houston and Paducah shows with my good friend, Peggi (Peckish on this board), and it really makes a huge difference when you go with a quilting friend. Our tastes are the same, but very different. Which gave each of us an advantage. Peggi is very technical-minded, and I like things a bit more simple. She'd point out things that excited her that I'd have never thought of even looking at - that I realized I really liked! And I'd do the same for her. We'd spend as much time with each other as we would alone - we're both the type who like to go off exploring for ourselves. We never felt we had to entertain each other. We'd message each other when we'd find something at a booth the other might like to see, so we were able to double-cover the same show in half the time. And we'd both spend a lot of time looking at the quilting in the quilts to see if there was something we wanted to try or felt was "different" than the usual boring feathers and swirls. There's nothing, NOTHING like going with a friend who makes you see quilts in a completely new way!