Doug,
Most places that do the one hour or one day photo thing are using the Fuji Frontier systems. They print digital pretty well. When you take in a photo make sure they don't "adjust" it any from your specs. Then you can take a look at it as opposed to what you think it should be. Alternatively, you can ask if they have a color profile for their system. There are a few places on the net that will allow you to download a color profile target ask the photo place to print it per the instructions included and send that back to the place you downloaded it from. It's usually about $25 or so to get it done, but it works woinders when using a commercial printer system like the Frontier.
Profiling your monitor does help in the final process, but it's just as important to profile the printer system to the monitor as well. The ICM profile will help you do this as well. It's a complicated process, but it will certainly work to your advantage and the Costco's and Wal-Marts can certainly print cheaper than you will be able to.
Otherwise, take a look at the Canon i900 or i9000 series of inkjets. They use individual ink tanks (the new ones use like 8 or 10 different inks) and the color is outstanding. Under glass and the right paper, they last for quite a long time. I've got a print that gets a couple of hours of direct sun everyday in the living room and it's been on the wall for 4 years now. I printed up another one just to do a comparison (and my mother in law wanted a copy) and I saw no visible fading. This is under standard glass, a cheap frame and matted.
I have the canon s9000 and I can print a 13X19 print in 6 minutes. The newer ones are better color quality and faster in printing and will print up 13X9 full bleed photos just as fast or faster.
The other option would be the Epson printers. They were dog slow in printing, but were generally accepted as having the best print for an inkjet style printer. Last I heard, Canon closed the gap with print quality against the Epson pigmented inks. Canon just works better for me and I print quite a few proofs and team photos, Entertainer head shots, and the occasional portrait.
