Thanks for all of the advice guys, the trip was quite memorable. Like I said, I haven't driven this route since 1999 so some things have changed. Good to see more progress on 400/69. Another stretch south of Sudbury looked almost ready to open to four lane traffic. Good progress at Nipigon River as well, you can watch the action here:
http://www.enl-tbay.com/NipigonBridge/Home-Cam.html
While of course Manitoba wins hands-down in percentage of highway with four lanes, at the moment the average pavement condition is better in Ontario. However, this may soon change as there is a huge amount of re-paving going on in Manitoba. We'll see if this alleviates the anger over the PST increase. One oddity; Google Maps appears to show the James Street Bridge in Thunder Bay open to traffic, but in real life it appears long-closed. No worry on my end since part of the detour around it took us by the Bombardier plant and we saw one of the TTC's long-overdue streetcars.
As far as attractions go, while I admired the view once again from the Terry Fox Lookout and Mt. McKay, we agreed that the best view of the Sleeping Giant was actually from Hillcrest Park, a place I had never been. I can't recall if it was there before, but there is a faux lighthouse viewing tower in Terrace Bay that gets you high enough to see over the highway out to the lake. There were many natural lookouts around Superior, although Old Woman Bay was obscured by fog. We also checked out a number of other attractions (e.g. Amethyst Mine Panorama), however the Wawa Goose and the Winnie the Pooh Statue in White River could use some fixing up.
As far as restaurants go, Muio's in the Sault was a good choice. While I had never heard of "broasted" chicken before, everyone was able to get something that they liked. I didn't realize that they closed at 8:00 though. However, the waitress was very gracious in having us stay a little later. On the way back we decided on room service at the Delta which was good. In Thunder Bay, Red Lion was packed. While they had run out of several things, we made do with large burgers, beef ribs, their own ice cream and beer tasting from an impressive list. On the way back we were too late to get in to some places with my son so we checked out Caribou. While we were under-dressed from travelling, the staff did not bat an eye and we had good pizza and some Malbec tasting.
As for hotels, the Best Western Crossroads in Thunder Bay is fine for what it is - a nice newish third floor built on top of an old walkout motel. They may be renovating soon though. The Townplace Suites by Marriott was meh. The rooms were small and oddly designed and the breakfast was not that great. Despite this, it was full or close to it for almost any date I checked. I have a hunch the under construction Hampton Inn will do well once it opens. We stayed at the Delta in Sault Ste. Marie both ways. After some problems with our reservations on the way west, a very friendly and proactive management team more than made up for it on the way back. I highly recommend staying at the Delta, especially in one of the rooms with a full water view of the ships going through the locks. We even lucked into the Steelworkers putting on a fireworks show on the river right in front of us. A very memorable last night of the trip in a well-located, nice hotel. One thing I was curious about though. In walking to and from the nearby casino, there were groups of young people congregating in the south Station Mall parking lot. They didn't seem to be there to watch the "submarine races" and no one approached me so I was a bit puzzled.
Finally, the welcome areas between the two provinces are night and day. Arriving in Manitoba there is a nice tourism place with friendly bilingual staff, lots of brochures, clean washrooms with flush toilets, coffee, a water cooler, etc. Deciding to see what was on the Ontario side on the way back was a mistake. After pulling in, found the tourism part of the building abandoned with a sign directing you to go to Kenora. Bizarrely, the washrooms are still open but not well maintained with feces in the urinals, feces in the sinks, on the walls, etc. The pit toilets outside were not much better. After everyone got back in the vehicle I said "Welcome to Ontario!" and even the Ontarians laughed.
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