TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 10

This tour is a delightful way to relax after a day of travel or a board of director's meeting. The bus leaves at 4:50 p.m. for Navy Pier and the Spirit of Chicago. A choice of meals will be available for the people who go on this tour. (Food is included.) Some people take the Spirit of Chicago for the Food! Take the time to relax as the Sun sets behind the skyline of Chicago and watch the lights of Chicago from America's largest Lake. We return to the Hotel by 11:00 p.m. $99.00/person

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11

An all day tour to the lovely Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford, Illinois. Anderson Gardens is located on a twelve acre site which contains an authentic Japanese pond-strolling garden, guest house, tea house, gazebo, stone lanterns, and waterfalls, as well as the Garden of Reflection. Anderson Garden is rated the second best Japanese Garden by Roth Journal of Japanese Gardening. A tour guide will be provided by the Garden for our tour. The garden is not wheel-chair accessible.

After the garden, we will have lunch in a private room at the Cliffbreakers restaurant in Rockford. Food is included within the tour price. On the return trip, we will stop at Oak Hill Nursery in Dundee. Oak Hill has been nationally known for their Orchids. After Oak Hill, the bus will return to the Hotel around 5:00 p.m. $55.00/person

THURSDAY, AUGUST 12

We will start our all day tour with the Lincoln Park Conservatory which is next to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The Lincoln Park Conservatory is one of the many Jewels of the Chicago Park District.

After which we will drive down Lake Shore Drive with a close up view of the Chicago Skyline to the Field Museum of Natural History. We will learn about the importance of the Field Museum Herbarium and Library containing books detailing the discovery of new plant species, Bromeliads and plant families. Indeed, This is where our Harry Luther and Bruce Holst come to do research on Bromeliads!

We will eat a fine Lunch at the Soundings Restaurant viewing the Chicago Skyline within the Shedd Aquarium to compliment the Best Tour of the selection of Tours. Food is included.

Afterward, we will go to the Garfield Park Conservatory built in 1906 & 1907 and recently rebuilt to house the Palms, Ferns, Aroids, Tropical Plants, and Bromeliads. This year you will see something not normally seen in Greenhouses -- Dinosaurs! Mounted and seeming ready to eat the plants of the Greenhouse. You will want to bring your cameras to take pictures that you will remember for a lifetime. We arrive back at the Hotel around 5:00 pm. Well worth the price! $54.00/person

This is the "Free" tour for everyone. Two half day tours. One leaving in the morning and arriving back by 1pm and the other leaving at noon time and coming back by 5pm.

This is where the Bromeliad Society of Greater Chicago holds their monthly meetings.

There are 26 different garden areas. Aquatic Garden, Bulb Garden, Children's Garden, Circle Garden, Dixon Prairie, Dwarf Conifer Garden, Enabling Garden, English Oak Meadow, English Walled Garden, Evening Island, Fruit & Vegetable Garden, The Greenhouses, Heritage Garden, Japanese Garden, Lakeside Gardens, Landscape Gardens, McDonald Woods, Native Plant Garden, Rose Garden, Sensory Garden, Shade Plant Evaluation Garden, Skokie River, Spider Island, Sun Plant Evaluation Garden, Water Gardens, Waterfall Garden. They broke ground for the Gardens in 1965 and opened it in 1972. The Botanic Gardens are on 385 acres with 81 acres of waterways, 9 islands, 15 acres of prairie, 100 acres of woods and 6 miles of shoreline (not of Lake Michigan). This is a place with something for everyone. Food not included. You must register before the Conference for this tour! $0.00/person

The Orchid Tour will be in the Afternoon of Friday, leaving at 1:15 pm for Villa Park, Home of Orchids by Hausermann and EFG Orchids. Two of the best Orchid Houses in the United States. We will return by 4:50 pm at the latest. $27.00/person