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Well, there is the casino on Wheeling Island, which has a decent buffet.
In downtown Wheeling, you can park your car in one spot and see Independence Hall (great architecture, but their pro-northern propaganda goes too far), eat at Valley Cheese, which is a big market with lots of types of food. You can get a $1 hot dog. Two blocks away is the Imperial Teacher's Store, which is a huge place to get reasonably priced art projects. Across the parking lot from there is a giant Christmas warehouse.
There is the toy and train museum, which is interactive and has many rooms of really cool stuff that brings you back to your childhood. I was there in late August and the place was empty, which was cool.
(In retrospect, i personally may have skipped the Artisan Market, but if you like avant-garde food choices and have a lot of money to spend on blown glass, by all means, go for it). Also, go there if you're into nails. The whole town is obsessed with nails, like the kind you drive through a stake, which I think is cool.
If you're willing to drive the 20 minutes to Wellsburg, there is a hidden gem: the Crooked Dock, which is a tremendous sports-bar type of restaurant right on the Ohio River, so you can get there by boat, and the view is gorgeous! There is also a green grass area where you can play volleyball and bean bag toss.
The hotel at which I stayed hosted a manager's dinner every Monday night, which meant delicious, free (!) buffet-style dinner and mingling with others--locals and non-locals--in a garden. Very cool cameraderie, and the hotel had the baddest aquatic center, complete with fake rain, indoor/outdoor pools, and other stuff.
Also, about 45 minutes away is the largest Hare Krishna temple in the country, with exotic birds, amazing outdoor statues, colorful idols, and, of course, Pradhupaha's Palace of Gold, which is exactly what is says it is. The view is spectacular, and I took some of the best pictures of my life there!
All of this stuff is really cheap, or free, too, so you can do a lot on a little.
Just one caveat about Wheeling: they are not historically truthful with regard to, well, anything about West Virginia, if you care about that stuff. I would suggest a supplemental visit to Charleston, when you can get there, in order to get a completely different view of the state. Other than the lying, it's a great place to spend time, and I'd love to go back.
This Saturday. Victoria Theater on Market Street. Built in 1905. Their monthly Wheeling Jamboree at 7 pm. If you're a veteran the $15 admission is free. Three hours of music and entertainment. These are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. It's low tech and all Hee Haw and stuff but I love it. $2 beer and popcorn made in a 100 year old machine. Awesome.
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