Liberty Helicopters - Big Apple

 Charm of Holland - Departure from Amsterdam   Highlights: Visit the charming villages Volendam, Zaanse Schans, Marken, and Edam Cheese-tasting demonstration Traditional clogs-making demonstration Ticket Includes: 8.5 hour Live Guided Tour in English, Spanish and German Walking tours in Zaanse Schans, Edam and Volendam Deluxe Coach Admission to a working windmill Boat trip on the Ijsselmeer Demonstration by a clog maker Lunch at a traditional Holland fish restaurant Admission to the Cheese Factory Volendam incl. cheese tasting Admission to the Old Dutch Bakery  Ticket Excludes: Hotel Pick Up   Full Description: The Charm of Holland Tour will give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the best that Holland has to offer. The tour starts with a visit to the delightful villages of Volendam, Zaanse Schans, Marken, and Edam and enjoy a cheese-tasting and a demonstration of traditional clog-making! From there you will to visit an authentic and typical Dutch wooden windmill, followed up by a cruise on the waters of the lake Ijsselmeer to the picturesque village of Volendam. You will have the chance to indulge the various delicacies the Netherlands have to offer, including local cheese, lunch in a traditional Dutch fish restaurant and visit an authentic Dutch bakery.       

Volendam, Marken and Windmills: GPS Tour DURATION: 5½-hours DEPARTURE: Winter Daily at 09:15 and 12:15 DEPARTURE: Summer  Daily at 08:45 and 14:45 GUIDE: GPS guide in 16 languages ​A visit to Amsterdam and the Netherlands would not be complete without having seen the lovely Dutch countryside.  This excursion takes you to the countryside north of Amsterdam, to the edge of the river Zaan, where you visit windmill village 'de Zaanse Schans,' with its characteristic green wooden houses. On the turn of the 18th century this district was an industrial area with approximately 700 windmills in use. In this day and age there are only give left. Through typical Dutch scenery you continue to Volendam for a city walk and the traditional fisherman's village of Marken, situated on the shores of the former Zuiderzee. This tour includes a visit to a working windmill, boatride between Marken and Volendam, a demonstration in a cheese factory and visit to a traditional clogmaker. The tour is live guided, but supported by an GPS audio system in 16 languages.  Includes: Deluxe Coach Guide Entrance to a windmill Clogmaker Cheese Factory Boat between Marken and Volendam Why not combine your visit to Volendam, Marken and Windmills with other famous attractions and activities in Amsterdam such as Canal Cruise or Madame Tussauds Amsterdam.

Wonderworks features over 100 interactive exhibits for visitors of all ages to experience.  Some of the exhibits include the death defying bed-of-nails, wonder coasters, a bubble lab, and indoor glow-in-the-dark ropes course, astronaut training gyros and more! WonderWorks Orlando began as a Top Secret research laboratory on a remote island in the Bermuda Triangle. As legend has it, the world’s greatest scientists – led by Professor Wonder – were given the task of creating a man-made tornado and harnessing the POWER of it. During this experiment, something went awry and the power of the tornado was unleashed throughout the laboratory. This created a swirling vortex that was strong enough to rip the laboratory from its foundation. It was carried thousands of miles away and landed upside-down on the top of a brick warehouse in Orlando, Florida. Remarkably, all of the experiments remained intact and functional. When you enter the building, everything will be upside-down, so in order to participate in the fun, you must be inverted. Step inside the inversion tunnel and be turned right side up to begin your journey. Once you are properly aligned for your adventure, family fun awaits with more than 100 hands on exhibits.

Admission to KSCVC includes all of the exhibits, attractions, the IMAX theatre tickets and a very comprehensive bus tour to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.  It is easy to spend a full day at KSCVC, particularly if you would like to add on 'Lunch With an Astronaut*' or one of the special interest guided tours. Hotels are plentiful in nearby Titusville or the Cocoa Beach area, just south of Cape Canaveral. *Additional fee, to be paid direct at KSCVC. Orlando Balloon Rides Orlando Balloon Rides is the Premier Balloon Company in Central Florida and is the largest passenger ride operator on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. The well established companies of Blue Water Balloons and Orange Blossom Balloons have merged to form Orlando Balloon Rides. They fly thousands of people a year in balloons specifically designed and engineered for passenger comfort. Their balloons are all 2007 models or newer and have all the latest safety features with you in mind. Orlando Balloons are most proud of their 100%, unblemished safety record. Their reputation has been built over many years and Orlando Balloon Rides is held with great regard not only by the ballooning community but also in the travel and tourist industry. The company holds contracts with more than 80 national and international tour and travel operators as well as many local guest service organizations. These contracts cover many American and Canadian operators, every British Tour Company, the top 7 Japanese Tour Companies and many other European operators. They are the only company in the South East US contracted to fly guests from AAA motor club.

Shearwater is a classic Newport-style schooner yacht, only recently recognized as a national landmark in 2009. The vessel was built by Rice Brother Corporation in East Boothbay, Maine, back in a time when yachting was a rare combination of elegance and adventure; Rice Bros. were well known for building luxury pleasure yachts and produced some 4,000 hulls over a period of 64 years. The keel was laid down on January 4, 1929 and a news clip from the Boothbay Register reflects alongside a photograph "Tyler Hodgon at the old Tide Mill is getting out timbers for the schooner to be built at Rice’s. Vessel to be built of native white oak." Traditionally built from hand-hewn native white oak, she was the last boat to be constructed at that yard - likely due to the ensuing Great Depression brought on by the Stock Market Crash that occurred later that autumn. East Boothbay was a small coastal town with shipbuilding being its only industry. About 40 workmen were employed for the construction of SHEARWATER. Her designer Theodore Donald Wells was born in Hudson Falls, N Y on October 22, 1875. He was a naval architect and marine engineer, a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and also the Institute of Naval Architects London. His education included post-graduate work at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He began his career as a member of the firm Herreshoff and Wells, N. Y. City in 1902. Working with Herreshoff no doubt had an influence on his designs, which bear similarities to many of the famous Herreshoff designed yachts of that time. From 1903 to 1907 he worked for Wintringham and Wells and then began practicing his profession under his own name. Mr. Wells joined the Navy Department in March 1917 and became Superintending Constructor of the Baltimore District U. S. N. Notable yachts designed and constructed under his supervision are "Viking" a 272 foot steel motor yacht built for George F. Baker in 1929 by Newport News and "Karina" a three masted schooner built for Robert E. Tod in 1932 by Staten Island Shipbuilding. Mr. Tod was a well-known offshore yachtsman as was his former yacht ‘Thistle", which competed in the Emperors Cup ocean race. SHEARWATER was launched on May 4, 1929 and photographs in the Boothbay Register reflect her graceful and elegant lines. Her first Captain, Leon Esterbrook of Edgarton, MA, arrived to take charge of the fitting out. Her owner Charles E Dunlap was a member of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Oyster Bay, NY and this became SHEARWATER’s first homeport after her completion in late September 1929. It was there in Oyster Bay that she first started to thrill those who sailed in luxury aboard her and those who were privileged to crew her on race day. Since her launching and documentation in Lloyd’s Register of American Yachts in 1929, she has had a colorful history and has been carefully maintained and restored to standards that few contemporary vessels are able to match and is truly a piece of American Maritime History. On November 7, 1942 SHEARWATER was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and became a member of The United States Coast Guard’s Coastal Picket Patrol during World War Two. She was painted gray and bore the numbers CG67004. Based at Little Creek, Virginia she patrolled the waters east of the Chesapeake Bay entrance and south towards Cape Hatteras. Her skipper during that period reflected on how they used their free time while out on submarine patrol to race against other yachts and in his own words "sailed in tandem with the schooner Lord Jim, racing in and out of port, up and down the east coast and winning." She was designed and built as a gaff rigged schooner but during this period was changed to a Marconi rig. She carries over 2,550 square feet while under full sail. A true veteran world cruiser, she first transited the Panama Canal in July 1946 and in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s completed a two and a half-year global circumnavigation. In December 1971 Mrs. John B. Thayer of Rosemont, wife of a former trustee and treasurer, donated SHEARWATER to the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Environmental Medicine. She was used by the university as a laboratory for research on physiological responses to the stresses of living and working underwater. Captained by James Shearson, she was fitted with compressors, generators, monitoring instruments and a small decompression chamber. She has participated in many Ancient Mariner and Classic yacht races in U S waters as well as racing in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand while on her circumnavigation in the early 1980’s. It is rumored she was once dismasted in the famous Newport to Bermuda race. She was last raced by the current owners in San Diego in May 1995 in the American Schooner Cup and finished second overall. She entered the yacht charter industry in 1966 whilst on the West Coast sailing to the Channel Islands and was again used to generate income to keep her shipshape while owned by the University of Pennsylvania. During the chartering industry’s infancy in the Caribbean, SHEARWATER was known as the " Queen of the Fleet". Today she continues this tradition offering the most unique sailing experience and has passed rigid Coast Guard inspections and can carry up to 49 passengers. We welcome you to join us for an excellent opportunity to experience the ambiance of a vintage sailing vessel while delighting in the splendors of The Manhattan sky-line, the Statue of Liberty or the beauty of the oceans beyond.