geekymom57

A while back I posted with questions about which hotel to stay at while in Toronto with my family--pondering various downtown hotels and the Inn on the Park. The different perspectives and rationales for preferred hotels that people posted were informative and made clear something that I knew but had been denying--travel preferences are quite subjective. :0) So while I would really prefer a downtown location because I love to walk and discover new areas, I realized that my kids and spouse would prefer the more sedate Inn on the Park location at least this first time through. So in the end, we decided on the Inn on the Park, and it worked out fine for our needs. Even though the room had double beds (a little cramped) the room itself was nice and spacious and we didn't feel as if we were stepping on each other all the time. The hotel seemed to be at a very low staffing level so it didn't have the bustle or &quot;energy&quot; that I'm accustomed to with most 3 star or higher hotels that I've stayed at, but I attribute that more to the low occupancy due to Easter week and of course SARS. Without a car it would have been a bit stifling--nothing within walking distance, but we knew that. The pool area was nice, although it was overtaken by a group of high school students the first night we were there.<BR><BR>We did a lot of driving (planned) and saw a lot of different neighborhoods and ate in several local restaurants. In addition to several jaunts downtown and taking in Mama Mia on Tuesday night, we spent cold Wednesday driving to/from Prince Edward County (Loyalist relatives on my side of the family were early settlers in that area), and windy Thursday morning at Niagara Falls (because it was there! very cold but impressive). I forgot to mention the side trips to Fairview Mall and Scarborough Town Centre (and of course Eaton Centre), after which the mall rat in our midst conceded that malls are pretty generic entities.<BR><BR>The city was very pleasant, people were friendly, and we had a very easy time crossing the border each way. Traffic was somewhat less challenging than Chicago's downtown traffic, and the city itself was very easy to navigate. The only disappointment for my kids was that this particular &quot;version&quot; of Canada was so similar to what they experience in the States and they expected something more obviously &quot;different&quot;--so perhaps Montreal would be a good next choice.<BR><BR>Thanks to everyone who helped us!<BR><BR>So on top of the thanks, one last question: can someone help us with the pronunciation of &quot;Yonge&quot; and &quot;Bloor?&quot; We had quite the conversations in the car about how these should be pronounced and although we don't have any actual money riding on the outcome, it would be good to have closure on the discussion.

torontopm

Hi mom57:<BR><BR>Thanks for the trip report.<BR>Wow you and your family did do a lot of driving. I'm sorry that our weather here was not cooperating. We had a really bad winter and spring does not seem any better. As for your question on how to pronounce Yonge and Bloor. It's Yonge pronounced &quot;Young&quot; and Bloor pronounced &quot;Bluer&quot; or &quot;Blew-er&quot;. Hope this settles it. <BR>Glad you and your family made it home safely.<BR><BR>

geekymom57

Thank you, Torontopm! I'm trying not to crow too loudly as I read the message, because those are the pronunciations I was promoting. The weather we experienced was very much like what went through our area while we were gone so we had packed appropriately and were prepared.

torontopm

Hi mom57:<BR><BR>Yes mom is always right! <BR>Both Montreal and Quebec City are great choices next time you come to Canada.<BR>Take Care.

BAK

Toronto and Chicago are so similar that the movie Chicago was shot here.<BR><BR>A lot of the diffrences are pretty subtle.<BR><BR>Soda to us is a soft drink with no flavour, used to mix with Scotch. We call all the carbonated soft drinks collectively &quot;Pop&quot;<BR><BR>Until this year, kids when to school for Junior Kindergarten (many towns and cities, but not all) and Senior Kinderegarten, and then grades 1 to 13, except we called 13 OAC for the past few years. Now school ends after grade 12.<BR><BR>College and University mean slightly different things in Canada. Universities are higher up the scale than Colleges; colleges tend to be more practical, colleges have lower admission standards, as far as marks go.<BR><BR>The Accord 1.7 EL is only available in Canada, and is really a Civic with a more powerful engine.<BR><BR>Candians get most US television; Americans get little Canadian television.<BR><BR>Americans have sausage gravy, Canadians have poutine.<BR><BR>But she's right, Toronto and Chicago are very similar.<BR><BR>I'm pleased you enjoyed your visit.<BR><BR>BAK

geekymom57

Thanks for the tidbit about Chicago being filmed in Toronto; I'll have to pass that along. My kids did notice some of the subtle written differences, e.g., &quot;centre&quot; vs. &quot;center,&quot; but many of the spoken English differences they were familiar with because we have several neighbors from the UK, as are the parents of several of their friends and schoolmates, so things like &quot;in hospital&quot; are familiar to them. And of course, in Wisconsin, &quot;pop&quot; is &quot;pop&quot;, too, although &quot;soda&quot; is becoming more common as the native-born Wisconsinites become more scarce. In general, people were more polite and formal than what we are accustomed to in the U.S. midwest; we heard a lot more &quot;sir&quot; and &quot;ma'am&quot;--similar to when I've travelled to southern U.S. states.<BR><BR>I'll be sure to take advantage of the knowledge in this group if we travel to Canada again! It helps to be prepared.

Kate_W

The key pronunciation question is &quot;How do you pronounce &quot;Toronto&quot;? Is it Tor-on-toe or terono? My mother (Toronto native) always gets mad when I say terono, but that seems to be the way most residents pronounce it.

torontopm

Hi Kate:

Its pronounced To-ron-toe. Listen to your mother.