Clearwater Beach - with Lunch

At 1,353 feet and 110 stories above the streets of downtown Chicago, The Ledge at the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) Skydeck will transform any visitor's--or local's for that matter--experience with the Windy City. In January 2009, Willis Tower owners began a major renovation of the beloved Skydeck, which originally opened in 1974, and served as a premier tourist attraction throughout the skyscraper's tenure as the Sears Tower. When ownership changed hands, the fresh blood added a fresh look--and adrenaline rush--to the 103rd floor in the form of retractable glass balconies extending about 4 feet over Wacker Drive and the Chicago River below. Still the 8th tallest building in the world, and the absolute tallest in the Western Hemisphere, Willis Tower's Skydeck draws 1.5 million people a year who are eager to ascend the 110-story, 1,454 foot (443 meter) building for awesome panoramic views of the city and surrounding countryside. Your journey to the top of the Willis Tower starts with a walk through an airport-style metal detector, followed by a slow elevator ride down to the waiting area where visitors queue for tickets. A sign will tell you how long you'll have to wait to get up high; this is a good time to confirm the visibility. Even days that seem sunny can have upper-level haze that limits the view. On good days, however, you can see for 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometers), as far as the states of Indiana, Michigan. Iowa, and Wisconsin. While you wait, you can watch a film about Willis Tower factoids. Then you'll wait a little longer before the ear-popping, 70 second elevator ride up to the 103rd floor deck. From here, the entire city stretches below, and you can see exactly how Chicago is laid out. Willis Tower, Skydeck, and The Ledge Fast Facts The hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind each week on Skydeck windows served as this inspiration for The Ledge. The Ledge boxes can each bear about 4-1/2 metric tons of weight, and adventurers who trust that statistic enough to prove it can often be found jumping and bounding around the entirely translucent enclosures as Chicago's heavy traffic and infrastructure bustle below. The Ledge’s glass panels weight 1,500 pounds apiece, and each box is comprised of three layers of half-inch thick glass laminated into one seamless unit. In addition to serving 1.3 million tourists per year in its 4.5+ million square feet of space, Willis Tower is home to more than 100 companies, including prominent law, insurance, transportation, and financial services. The Ledge's glass boxes retract into the Skydeck main floor for easy maintenance, mostly cleaning off the 974 dead birds that must fly into them every month. The Moonwalk is the most popular dance performed on The Ledge, followed closely by the Running Man. Riverdance clocks in at a distant third. Bringing people who are afraid of heights to The Ledge is not recommended, unless you are mean-spirited or really don't like them. In which case, you should probably just take them here. Willis Tower was known as Sears Tower for decades, until the 30th anniversary of Diff'rent Strokes, at which point it was rightfully renamed.

Take to the streets of New York with a local expert guide to explore neighborhoods once home to notorious criminals, learn how the city was ruled in waves by various immigrant crime rings and finding out what modern crime looks like in the city. On the Lower East Side, you’ll see tenement buildings where Irish immigrants lived in subhuman conditions. The most notorious area here was the ‘Five Points’ - a junction so infamous for its gang crime (rumor has it some even lived in burrows under the streets!) that Charles Dickens came to check it out himself on a trip to NYC, not believing it could live up to its reputation. It did, of course, as your guide will tell you. Irish gangs weren’t the only group to terrorise the Lower East Side however. Throughout the 1900s the Italian mafia kept Little Italy in a choke hold, while the 1970s and 1980s were dominated by Chinese turf wars that were so bloody you’ll hardly believe the stories. From the city’s earliest rag-tag gangs to the mafia empires of the 20th century, you’ll separate the truth from from  myths popularized by movies like Gangs of New York and TV shows like The Sopranos. You’ll also learn about the city’s most notorious criminals; from Captain Kidd and Boss Tweed, to John Gotti and Leona Helmsley. The neighborhoods you visit are much nicer today than they were in the past but has NYC really cleaned up its act? As part of your tour, you’ll visit lower Manhattan, in particular Wall Street and the Financial District, to learn about modern, white collar crime (and the going rate for a get-out-of-jail-free card). New York City crime tours don’t get any better than when they are developed with the help of NYPD police officers and detectives. Lifetimes of studying NYC’s criminals are synthesized into a truly unique experience that will teach you how crime is inseparable from the history of this great city.  Inclusions: Guided tour of the Lower East Side & Wall Street Expert tour guide Small groups of 15 people or fewer Exclusions: Gratuities Hotel pick-up/drop-off Sites Visited: Wall Street Lower East Side The old “Five Points” neighborhood Chinatown Little Italy Important Notes: Gratuities to guides are appreciated but never obligatory.  This tour may not be suitable for young children, as subject matter may be graphic and disturbing. Comfortable shoes are recommended. Please note, this tour is in English only.  

MENU   SANDWICHES (served with French fries & coleslaw)-Hot & Cold varieties   SALADS Greek-Caesar-Chef-Chicken or Tuna  PASTAS-Choice of Spaghetti-Ziti (Variety of sauces)   PIZZAS-Various toppings  GREEK SPECIALS-Chicken Souvlaki-Gyros   SEAFOOD (served with French fries & coleslaw)-Fish & Chips-Grilled Grouper Sandwich   KIDS-Burgers-Hot Dog-Chicken-Fingers-Fish & Chips   Sea Screamer What a scream, what a blast! Start the day with a thrilling ride in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico as you scream past Florida’s famous West Coast beaches on one of the world’s largest speedboats. Get those cameras ready for the close encounter with the dolphins!   Your comfort and safety are #1. The Sea Screamer is equipped with comfortable bucket seats, two restrooms, refreshments, and is Coast Guard licensed and equipped for your safety.

SHEDD AQUARIUM EXHIBITS UNDERWATER BEAUTY – A SPECIAL EXHIBIT Our living world is full of wonder. Celebrate with us the unbelievable beauty living in our oceans, lakes and rivers in a new special exhibit at Shedd Aquarium: Underwater Beauty. Get a glimpse of the grandeur beneath the waves as 100 species from around the world come together in an evocative new space. What is beauty? Spark your curiosity as you see all the ways beauty moves and coexists. Watch sea jellies pulse, eels ribbon and a rainbow come alive with reef fishes. Feel the rhythms, embrace the colors and savor the patterns found only underwater. Experience a world worth celebrating – and saving. Waters of the World Travel the world in 80 habitats. Dive into Oceans, from coastal kelp forests to the seafloor. Explore the self-contained ecosystems of Islands and Lakes. Visit Rivers—big and small—and learn more about our local waters in the new At Home on the Great Lakes exhibit. Meet hundreds of amazing animals, from tiny mantella frogsto a a giant octopus, from a Grand Cayman blue iguana to Nile knifefish, and from moon jellies to sea stars. We even have map turtles, in case you get lost. Caribbean Reef Take a 360-degree tour of an underwater reef community. Follow a green sea turtle. Peek at a moray eel in a rocky crevice. Watch regal rays glide by. Get eye-to-eye with parrot fish and sharks. Visit Caribbean Reef, Shedd’s award-winning 90,000-gallon circular habitat in the grand rotunda. Amazon Rising Take an exotic journey in the Amazon, home to one-third of all living things. Watch out for anacondas and piranhas, spiders, rays and a camouflaged caiman. In churning river channels, still lakes and even flooded treetops look for tetras, turtles and fruit-eating fish called tambaqui. See how the region’s animals, plants and people adapt to the water’s dramatic annual rise and fall. Abbott Oceanarium The Abbott Oceanarium immerses you in the vibrant coastal ecosystem of beluga whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, sea otters and sea lions. You’ll also find a host of fishes and invertebrates that make their homes where freshwater flows into the ocean or where tides turn seascapes to landscapes and back again each day. Use our self-guided map to discover how animals are linked to each other, their homes and you. Polar Play Zone Kids have a place at Shedd that they can call their own—Polar Play Zone. It’s cool as ice and twice as nice! The penguins think so, too. Play! Splash! Pretend! What would you like to be? A sleek sliding penguin? A deep-sea explorer? How about both? In Polar Play Zone, you can slip into a penguin suit and try being a bird in the Icy South play area. From there, head to the Icy North to explore the belugas’ Arctic waters in a kid-sized submarine. Don’t forget to shake hands—or is it arms?—with colorful sea stars in the touch pools. In Polar Play Zone, you’ll learn about polar opposites—big and small, fast and slow, shallow and deep, even north and south—while you play. The Oceanarium Aquatic Presentation​ is included however based on available seating and remaining show times at the time of guest arrival. (2019 Aquatic Presentation Schedule) Stingray Touch (seasonal experience) is included. Open late May through October. 4D Experience is not included however the 4D experience tickets may be purchased at the theatre for $3.00 per -person Pets are not allowed in the aquarium SHEDD AQUARIUM (Buy your tickets now and skip the long lines) Shedd Aquarium (formally the John G. Shedd Aquarium) contains over 25,000 fish, and was for some time the largest indoor aquarium in the world with 5,000,000 US gallons of water. The Shedd Aquarium, which opened on May 30, 1930, was the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater fish collection. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, Shedd Aquarium brings you eye-to-eye with more than 32,500 aquatic animals. Explore the recreated environments of the Amazon River and Philippine coral reefs. NEW - UNDERWATER BEAUTY – A SPECIAL EXHIBIT Our living world is full of wonder. Celebrate with us the unbelievable beauty living in our oceans, lakes and rivers in a new special exhibit at Shedd Aquarium: Underwater Beauty. Get a glimpse of the grandeur beneath the waves as 100 species from around the world come together in an evocative new space. What is beauty? Spark your curiosity as you see all the ways beauty moves and coexists. Watch sea jellies pulse, eels ribbon and a rainbow come alive with reef fishes. Feel the rhythms, embrace the colors and savor the patterns found only underwater. Experience a world worth celebrating – and saving.

Adventure Cat: For an hour and half, you'll be treated to fantastic views of Alcatraz Island, the city skyline, the Golden Gate bridge and the Pacific Ocean. Recorded audio tour handsets are available for free upon request, 8 languages available (English, French, German, Spanish, Portrgese, Chinese, Italian, and Korean) Things to Remember:
Bar and snacks available onboard, accepting cash and credit cards.
Arrive 30 minutes early to find parking and to locate us on Pier 39, Gate J, next to the sea lions.
Bring a jacket and wear soft-soled shoes.
No outside beverages may be brought on board.
Cancellations must be made 3 days before day of Cruise
California Academy of Sciences: One general admission includes access to all museum and aquarium exhibits, including the rainforest, planetarium, and living roof. Admission to this popular Bay Area attraction includes a wide range of daily programmes and activities, including dive shows, penguin feedings, swamp talks and more. It's fun for the whole family! The Academy is a single structure but contains multiple venues, including the aquarium, the planetarium, the natural history museum and the 4-story rainforest. In addition, there's a 3D theater, a lecture hall, a Naturalist Center, two restaurants, an adjacent garden and aviary, a roof terrace, and an Academy store. The building also houses the Academy science labs and administrative offices, including an extensive library and scientific archive consisting of more than 26 million specimens. The Academy is now the largest public Platinum-rated building in the world, and also the world’s greenest museum. The Academy earned the platinum rating (highest rating possible) for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This commitment to sustainability extends to all facets of the facility - from the bike racks and rechargeable vehicle stations outside the building to the radiant sub-floor heating inside the building to the energy-generating solar panels on top of the building!

The Relais Saint Michel Menu*: Baked Camembert in phyllo dough with apples and arugula salad ** Salmon with rice and two vegetable sides (e.g. mushrooms and broccoli) ** Apple tart ** 1 bottle of cider + 1 bottle of water for 6 pers.  Coffee or tea Vegetarian Menu*:  Baked Camembert in phyllo dough with apples and arugula salad or Crudité plate ** Tagliatelle with vegetables or Omelet with vegetables **  Apple tart ** 1 bottle of cider + 1 bottle of water for 6 pers.  Coffee or tea Children menu* (under 12 years old):  Tagliatellis with ham or Ground beef with french fries or 'Moules Marinières" with french fries Apple pie or Chocolate mousse or Ice cream vanilla-strawberry Soft drink * Exemple of menus, subject to modification * The menu is not available in english  From December 19th, lunch in the Mont Saint Michel at the restaurant "Terrasses Poulard" or "Mouton Blanc" with the following menu:  Normandy salad with warm baked camembert ** Cod-fish loin, butter sauce with basmati rice and vegetables ** Caramel cream with salted butter ** 1 Bottle of cider for 6 persons 1 bottle of water for 6 persons Coffee or tea    Please note :  Those with reduced mobility should note that the climb up to the abbey can be tiring Comfortable shoes and warm clothing are recommended in Winter On-site visit duration: 4h30