Getting to Windsor for a Couple Hours

[projectmaximus]

Originally Posted by usroute10

Crossing the Border
-Don't carry a firearm or any narcotics. Every once in a while, the CA or US agents will make you pull over and have your car searched.

-The only time the tunnel gets backed up is during a major concert or, an MLB baseball/NFL football game, and often during work commute hours (7-9 am and 4-6 pm).

-I would take the tunnel, not the Ambassador Bridge to get to Windsor

-Windsor is not a great tourist attraction city. Maybe the most unique attraction was tasting tours of the historic Canadian Club Whiskey manufacturing facility, but those were discontinued 2 years ago

Things to do
-Windsor has an awesome downtown/near downtown waterfront park and bike path

-Windsor has a strip of Middle Eastern restaurants, and bakeries and markets on West Wyandotte Street about 1/2 mile west of downtown.

-Windsor has a charming Little Italy district on Erie Street. More info here: VIA ITALIA

-Windsor has their own variant of pizza that is quite delicious. Popular pizza places include Cheez Whiz, Capri's, Armando's, Antonino's, and Arcata's. Cheez Whiz and Capri's are in/adjacent to downtown

-Windsor has a large vibrant neighborhood called Walkerville. It has 2 hip, walkable strips about 3/4 mile apart on West Wyandotte and Ottawa Streets. The residential neighborhood between the two strips is beautiful.

LASTLY
-If you want to visit some of the outlying areas I mentioned above, I would recommend just driving, especially if you have people with you. If it is just you and want to just walk around downtown, then the tunnel bus is fine and runs every 1/2 hour. If you want Canadian cuisine, Frenchy's Poutinery in downtown can fulfull your poutine desires.

Awesome advice. Thanks!!

[mikeyo321]

Originally Posted by canudigit

Oh, my gosh, I think I know the guy you're talking about. He was our checkpoint guy coming back into the U.S. after spending a day at Point Pelee National Park a few years ago. I had nothing questionable in my car, it was me and my young adult daughter, very average looking, nothing remotely extreme, and I was driving one of the most common sedans driven by residents of Southeast Michigan, a Ford Fusion.

When it was our turn at the checkpoint, this guy glared at me, asked why we had been in Canada, and then acted like he didn't believe that we spent the day at the park. He then proceeded to stare suspiciously at my car. He asked me in a gruff tone if I owned it and if so, when and where I bought it. I was kind of taken aback, I wasn't driving a Duesenberg, mind you, just a four year old Ford Fusion. I gave him the information he wanted and then he wanted to know if I had the sales paperwork with me..??? Seriously, I have never seen anything like this at the border before or since. Weird. He passed me through but he was absolutely hateful the whole time. I seriously cannot tell you how ordinary and even conservative we look, I don't know what I did to tick him off but I'm thinking he's just angry at the world and therefore takes it out on benign people like middle-aged moms at the border.

Keep that in mind whenever you wonder what it's like to be a person of color pulled over at a traffic stop. No, not EVERY interaction with police and authority figures is like that but what you described is par for the course for folks of color.