The Royal York

 

Last week to attend the Barbra Streisand concert we stayed at the Royal York. This hotel was built in the 1920's as part of a chain of spectacular hotels along the Canadian National Railway system. We had come to the hotel in the 1970's so it was a special treat to stay there for our 44th anniversary.

You park your car, get out and hand your keys to the valet, and he vanishes with the car and suitcases still in it. We then walked through the lobby below, past the normal registration counters and got the special express elevator to the 12th floor.

As you come out of the elevator you then take a right and go into the private registration area just for this floor. Behind the registration desk is a very comfortable club room stocked with food and drinks just for the residents of this floor.

Coming out of the registration area and walking to the room this was the view ... brought back memories of Versailles and its opulence.

Dinner that evening was in the Library Bar which seemed to suit our preference for the pub type of eating establishment ... but a bit more upscale than some we have been in.

Their specialty is the baked dishes that we had below. Jo-Anne had the short rib (minus bone) pot and I had the lobster bisque one. Both accompanied by a small salad and of course a couple of Stella Artois beers. Life is good, eh.

Then off to the concert which we have already talked about.

 

We were treated like royalty by a huge staff of professionals just for that (The Gold or Concierge) floor. After coming back to the room after the concert the above picture was taken from our room and what a view of downtown Toronto and the ever present CN tower.

In the morning we went back to the private club on our floor and had super breakfast of perfectly cooked and truly decadent stuff. I think Jo-Anne said, "I could really get used to this." Might be a while.

Streisand Live

 

For our 44th anniversary, on the 23rd of August, we drove the hour and a half down to Toronto to go to the Barbara Streisand concert at the Air Canada Center. We checked into the Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Front Street, had dinner and then on to the concert. I'll talk more about the Royal York later as it was a whole experience on its own.

 

We walked about a block from the hotel to enter the concert venue and this was how we were greeted on a beautiful 75 degree evening.

 



We wound our way into the place with the other 19,800 folks who were Streisand fans just like us and this was the view of the stage from our seats. This was the last of her performances of 2016 as well as this tour and it celebrated her hits over the course of six decades entitled:

“Barbara – The Music ... The Mem’ries ... The Magic!”

After the concert starts you cannot take pictures so the one below is one of the official ones.
(Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage for BSB)

She then proceeded to give us everything this phenomenal performer had to offer ... and it was pure perfection. Over the course of almost three hours, in two sets, she gave us 21 of her most popular songs as well as a really neat dialog about politics and ecological issues. She's a solid Democrat and has performed for several Democratic presidents, so for this audience as well as us it was wonderful.

As we walked back to the hotel this was the scene in Toronto. On the right is the Royal York Hotel and on the left as you walk down Front Street is Union Station; just behind it was the concert. The CN tower was a brilliant topping for the whole city scene; an evening we will never forget!

 

On Pelee Time

 

That's the saying of the locals as the ferry only comes to the island a couple times a day and it's pretty laid back. Below is a picture of a native American rock design with the HMS Jimaan in the background; the view almost Mediterranean in appearance.

 

Our ferry deposited us at the dock and we drove the dusty dirt road for about 10 miles to our B&B. We arrived at "Pelee Places" about 8pm Tuesday night and our host, Bev, over a couple of glasses of wine showed us around the house.

This is about a 1500 square foot house with three bedrooms and two baths. We had booked the master suite with an ensuite bath and king sized bed. Bev has several properties and lives elsewhere on the island so we were alone in the house for Tuesday night.

The view below is from the front room where we were served breakfast the next two mornings ... awesome view of Lake Erie to the east and of the ship channel. Bev's banana bread French toast was the hit of the morning's meal ... as well as an omelet.

Then off to the Pelee Island Winery which was the real reason for the visit. The grapes are grown on 600 acres on the island then shipped over to the mainland to be processed into wine.

This place has a rich history of crops ranging from the grapes, to tobacco, to potatoes and other fruits and vegetables due to a very mild climate controlled by the shallow lake which surrounds it.

The wine toast for the day was after our informative tour of the facility. You could eat there by buying the raw BBQ materials and then cooking them yourself in the pavilion in the background, but as the day was about 90 degrees we opted for one of the few low-key joints in the little town by the dock. There are only about 300 full time residents of the place so facilities are pretty sparse.

We had toured all day Wednesday to the winery, the museum, and to the farthest point south on the island, where we were at the southernmost point of Ontario and therefore Canada.

As we were to leave on Thursday it was fitting for nature to give us this spectacular sunset as we sat at the rear of the B&B. The house sits on the northernmost spit of land by the lighthouse and you literally can stand in the same spot to see the sun set and rise; of course you might want to sleep in-between, eh.

On Thursday we did the 5 hour trek back up through Toronto to our place in Barrie ... between Detroit and the island it was a fun couple of days.

 

South to Canada

 

Due to a bit of odd geography, as you leave Detroit and go through the tunnel, you then head south in Windsor as the folks in Windsor have always looked northerly toward their US neighbors ... weird.

 

We kept to the coast road and stopped in the beautiful little village of Amherstburg which we have highlighted before on a previous trip. The flower baskets and greenery were spectacular as always and you can just see the St. Clair River in the background.

 

 

As we strolled through the park on the river this little guy said thanks for a peanut treat.

We then continued along the coast, turning more easterly and ended up now on Lake Erie in Kingsville where the ferry was to depart for Pelee Island. Being lunchtime we scouted some eating places and chose Jacks Gastropub in the old house below.

Inside was a treat of the 1960's married to the antique 1800's of the home style and of course some 2016 craft beers.

We shared a mushroom/caramelized onion burger and their specialty of parmesan fried artichokes which had a wonderful sauce and chunks of fried parmesan cheese ... yup.

And then off to our ferry which was the HMS Jimaan. This boat is about half the size of the Chi-Chi Maun of the Tobermory crossing and seemed quite worn.

We boarded about 5pm on Tuesday and slowly chugged the hour and a half toward our destination of Pelee Island (Bald Point in French) in the middle of Lake Erie.

Greektown

 

For our monthly allergy shot visit to the Mt. Clemens/Detroit area we elected to stay in the Greektown section of Detroit, right downtown. Below is a view of the skyline taken from the Windsor side of the St. Clair river highlighting the now upscale downtown.

 

Here's a shot across the river from the Detroit side capturing the marina and part of the Riverwalk area that has really taken off. Behind me were new condos being constructed as part of the downtown renovation process.

We stayed in Greektown in the appropriately named Atheneum Hotel and this view was out our window of the casino and its hotel with the light rail in the bottom of the picture. The hotel was pretty bad without air conditioning or much for food or towels, but the view was neat.

As we strolled the main Greektown avenue we stopped at the Santorini Restaurant for a taste of Greek cuisine.

While we waited for dinner we admired the neat wall décor of bottles. The bar area was also very well done in the blue and white Greek theme.

I ordered a garlic shrimp on a bed of rice which was one of the better I have had. While not experts on Greek food Jo-Anne ordered the plate below consisting of three of their specialty vegetarian dishes. The spanakotiropeta and dolmathes were excellent but the moussaka outshined them both. Jo-Anne last had moussaka about ten years ago and said she would never do it again ... but this earned a "wow this is really good!" The wait staff was great and the presentation of the dishes really attractive.

While this was a short visit we had a great time and are really happy that Detroit is making a comeback and places like Greektown and other venues of the city made it a really worthwhile visit. From Detroit we are off to Pelee Island Ontario.