Queen Elizabeth Way

We have been on, in order, ON-402, ON-403, ON-401, Queen Elizabeth Way and the Gardiner Expressway.  Today we toured the Queen Elizabeth Way, affectionately known to those of us frequenting SE Ontario as the QEW, pretty much from end to end.  The QEW has no other name and no number, just QEW.  It runs west out of Toronto down to the end of the lake where it makes the turn at Hamilton and then runs east down the lake to Niagara Falls (the city, not the Falls)

Notes:  Parking is really expensive in Toronto, three nights for the car in the municipal ramp were nearly as much as one night in the hotel for us.

The head waiter at the hotel restaurant was Polish and after three days of serving us breakfast finally considerably warmed to the incorrigibly gregarious FT meaning that we had to chat, meaning that we had a hard time getting out of the hotel and a not as early as ideal, we thought, beginning on the ride to Niagara.  We wrangled the bags into the hotel lobby where FT stood guard while I went in search of the car.  After being informed of and paying the too high tariff I drove up the ramp from underground fearing the worst, that I would be presented with a completely unfamiliar street scene which would require some driving around peering about hoping to find my way back to familiar ground.  Instead as soon as I reached the surface I knew totally and absolutely exactly where I was.  A left out of the ramp, half a block and a left (I even made the light), half a block and I pulled into the loading zone in front of the hotel.

This is a bicycle blog so I include this bit of bicycle content, the view out the driver's side window after the luggage and the passengers had been loaded but before the engine was started.

Very nice City of Toronto bicycle locking post, the hotel restaurant and at the very left the entrance to the hotel.

The complete tour of the QEW doesn't take very long at all, probably only about 75 miles.  Even with a late start within an hour or so we were within 60km of our destination, that's only about 36 miles.  Nominal check-in time was 4pm and it appeared we would get there way too early.  When a highway information sign advertised tourist information center we hopped off the QEW to see if we could obtain an official Ontario highway map.  It turns out that in Ontario instead of having taxpayers pay the whole tab for the rest stop they have Tim Horton and a few others open restaurants in the building and then reserve a space for the government tourist information types.  We were disappointed to discover at this one that the actual tourist information part was not open.  The french fryer at the Wendy's seemed to be turned up a little high and the place stunk of too hot grease.

I do think I got a nice picture of the three flags though, USA, the Maple Leaf and the Ontario provincial flag.

Finally we decided to head on down towards the Falls, try to find a place to have lunch and then check to see if early check-in was a possibility.  Having been slightly singed by the experience in Toronto we also wanted to check out the parking situation in Niagara Falls.

After exiting the QEW in Niagara Falls, we discovered, eureka, another official tourist information center.  After a highly entertaining interlude with some we think Australians we got directed from the former information center (under construction) to the place where we and the Australians wanted to be.

Official Province of Ontario Highway map, for me a major score.

The next major score was that upon arriving at the hotel we discovered that no one had stayed in our room last night meaning we could go ahead and check in.  Further the whole parking situation is a valet deal with an extremely chatty and informative head valet guy.  Within minutes we were on our way up to our room.

It turns out that the my Dad took me everywhere when I was kid FT was NOT ever taken to Niagara Falls.  So we rode the elevator together, opened the door of room 2802 of the Tower Hotel together and took our first ever during this lifetime look at Niagara Falls together. I took a picture right away.

Pretty cool, huh.

Next we took a bit of a road trip but the sun came out and we decided to hurry back to the Falls.  This is the best one I have gotten so far, Horseshoe Falls right, American Falls left.

That's the view out our hotel window.  I am sitting here and I can hear Niagara Falls as I type.

From where we are you can ride the elevator down to the ground level of the hotel, take a short walkway and then ride a funicular down to Table Rock Point, that bit next to the Falls.

Here is the famous Maid of the Mist.

The edge of the Falls from right next to the Falls.

Another one of the tour boats pushing up into the gorge to about as close as they can get.

And then eventually back up the funicular and around the skywalk where pretty close to our hotel  the FT posed for this view.

"Unusual ice conditions"?  Geez, I betcha, no kidding.

We took a little bit of a sitdown and went to dinner at Marilyn's Bistro and Lounge.  This establishment has been open only Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the winter season.  Tonight happened to be the first night that they have reverted to 7 nights per week service.  Perhaps as a result they were not very busy and we managed to get the table that had this view.

The restaurant is on the 26th floor, we are on the 28th.

After dinner (excellent by the way) we stopped at our room before taking a late evening walk down to see what was happening at the casino.  They light the Falls after dark.

And then one final attempt after we got back from our walk.

We're pretty happy about our hotel room here at the end of Queen Elizabeth Way.