So I flushed my coolant and now it runs hotter! I think my radiator plugged, here's what transpired so far:
Drained using radiator/engine drain plug, out of 5.5 quarts I get 4 quarts of coolant out of her. Then I flushed as per the repair manual, sticking a hose in the top of the radiator for a bit until everything ran clear, let all that drain out. Old coolant was not as dirty as I would have figured, if I had to do it again maybe I'd just not mess with it.

Someone suggested using the prestone cleaner stuff, so I put that in, put a gallon of water in, went on a 30 minute trip, drained that, it was filthy! Put another batch of water in as per the instructions, another thirty minute trip, drained that, then put 4 quarts of 50/50 in, went on a test drive.
My temp gauge is something like, 7 cold, 8 normal, 10 "70 mph or up steep hills" 11 is overheating. The manual shows 8-10 to be normal operating range. Before the coolant flush she'd stay around 8 no matter what I did, going between 9-10 if doing some rough driving.
Well running around town she was doing 9, and when I tried going up the hill on the way to work then doing some 70 MPH in 4th, the temp went all the way to 10:30, a notch or so below HOT. No bubbling coolant, no steam or anything, I don't even think anything went in or out of the coolant overfly, car was running fine.
I freaked out a bit about that, drained the radiator, disconnected the lower hose and gave it a nice flushing with a hose in the top again. Filled back up with water, went on a test drive, temp showed 8:30 around town and just below 10 when I went up my "killer" hill. So not as bad this time but not as good as before the flush!
After all this, I figured out about foamy coolant and air bubbles and stuff, so I think part of my problem was not burping the system. So I did some searching here and figured out that it should burp itself. Other places on the internet suggested idling with the cap off, so for lack of things to do I let the car idle for 15 mins with the radiator cap out, and watched it foam up, fan kick on, foam go away, usually when idle car would stay in the 8 range on the temp guage, it was getting to 8:45 just idling! After the foam stopped and coolant just started bubbling (16 mins) I shut the engine off, replaced the missing coolant, and went on a quick drive.
After that I took a heat gun to the radiator, and while most of it was in the 140-150 degree range, a 2-3 inch section magically under the fill cap and inlet from engine was 85 degrees. So I think it plugged! The manual says in some cases you may have to take the radiator out and back flush it from the bottom. It was also suggested that the thermostat might have plugged up.
Does this sound like a plugged radiator, bad thermostat, or something else? If it is the radiator, is there anything else I could do besides backflushing? The internet had some interesting suggestions like CLR, vinegar, and even drano...
If all else fails a new radiator is $105, which isn't terrible, I'd just like to try fixing the current one first.