Ask and ye shall receive!
I worked at a hobby shop for a while, and I can tell you that the Blade CX2 is the most stable, easy-to-fly helicopter that I have had the opportunity to fly. That said: it also gets very boring after about 1-2months of regular practice.
In all honesty, I would recommend getting as large and expensive a helicopter as you can afford. This may seem entirely contradictory to what you had in mind, but the honest truth is that the more expensive and larger it is, the easier it is to fly. If you can't afford to go all-out on a nitro or TREX 600, I would be very quick to recommend the TREX 450SA. I initially started on a Blade CP Pro and it was the biggest mistake I've made in this hobby. TREX's are notably more expensive, but you do get what you pay for, and you will crash less often. I learned much faster and developed a greater sense of confidence with my REX than I ever could have with my Blade CPP - heck, those Blade CP's are still a bugger for me to fly.
I would imagine the reason all the helicopters you saw couldn't hover is because you were looking in the wrong price range. If you want cheap and easy-to-fly, I can only recommend the Blade CX2. Otherwise, the bigger, the better! Yes, they're so easy that even a 3-year-old could fly them:
http://media.putfile.com/Justin---Ra...x---2006-05-07 
Just my 2 pennies...
- Chaz