SOT 2007 Annual Meeting

The Society of Toxicology has arranged for a variety of tours. To register for any of these tours, please complete the Tour Registration Form. Each tour requires a minimum of 30 attendees, unless otherwise specified. Should the tour be cancelled due to lack of participation, you will be given the opportunity to register for another tour or your money will be refunded. Tour registration deadline is February 16, 2007. A printable version of the tour descriptions is also available.

A Day with the Queen–Charlotte City Tour
Sunday, March 25, 2007
1:00 PM–3:00 PM
$26.00 per person
Minimum: 30 people

As the largest city in the Carolinas, Charlotte offers everything you’d expect from a city with the friendliness of a small town.

Uptown’s historical “Old South” sights include: The Historic Fourth Ward, a preserved and charming area of Uptown with an abundance of Victorian architecture, the Carolina Theatre (which is being restored to its original condition of the 1927 American Theatre), and Thomas Polk Park.

Uptown’s “New South” sights include the 60-story Bank of America headquarters, which currently stands as Charlotte’s tallest building, and Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, an Uptown center for the performing arts and home to theater, art exhibits, artisans, classes and studios.

The Queen City, as Charlotte is affectionately called, was named after the wife of King George III, Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany. The discovery of gold in the countryside was the catalyst that led the way to Charlotte becoming one of the largest financial centers in the country. Three stops are recommended on this tour. Each stop is designed to convey The Queen City’s commitment to entwine the “New” and “Old” South. Stops will be determined by group size, interest, weather, and site availability. Tour fee includes all transportation, tours, taxes and gratuities..

North Carolina Furniture Tour–Hickory Furniture Mart
Monday, March 26, 2007
10:00 AM–3:00 PM
$34.00 per person (excluding lunch)
Minimum: 30 people

North Carolina has gained national acclaim as a center of furniture due to the richness and diversity of the area’s mammoth furniture manufacturing industry. As the largest furniture facility of the East Coast, Hickory Furniture Mart offers an incredible array of furnishings. Some 60 percent of all the furniture produced in the United States is made within 200 miles of Hickory Furniture Mart. Drawing on those vast manufacturing resources and supplementing them with other outstanding furnishings from all over the world, the Mart is able to offer more than 500 famous brands.

Since opening to the public in the early 1980s, Hickory Furniture Mart has become one of North Carolina’s foremost visitor attractions. Drawn by the incredible selections and impressive discounts, more than 300,000 people annually visit the Mart. Explore 13 acres of professionally decorated showrooms located in the Mart and shop some 60 factory stores, outlets and galleries.

Guests are on their own for lunch at the Café Gouda located on the 4th Floor of the Furniture Mart. Tour fee includes all transportation, taxes and gratuities.

Art About Town–Charlotte Art
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
10:30 AM–1:30 PM
$32.00 per person (excluding lunch)
Minimum: 30 people

This is your opportunity to get a glimpse of the talented artists that have contributed to the beauty and elegance of the Queen City. Our guide will enlighten you on not only local artists but expose you to Pre-Columbian art, religious frescos, sculpture, and community crafts that have made their mark on the Carolinas.

Ben Long’s Frescoes: Ben Long, a North Carolina native and world renown painter, perfected this art form. Now Charlotte has the pleasure of being the home to several of his works.

Uptown Buildings: The home of some of the most eclectic art can be found among the collection of buildings that make up the Charlotte skyline. Each building has a collection of art open to the public as well as a park-like area outside the main doors. The display of free art, waterfalls and fountains, and birds singing in the trees make visitors feel welcomed on the most hectic of business days.

Mint Museum of Craft and Design: Experience the evolution of crafts as it relates to the disciplines of our time. The museum’s permanent collection is a series of pieces tracing the Crafts Movement in the 19th century and its relationship with today’s decorative arts and designs.

Performing Arts Center and Main Public Library: The tour will take you by the gorgeous $60 million state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center. You will also have the opportunity to view the library’s famous mural “Before Dawn” by nationally noted collage artist and native son Romare Bearden.

Spirit Square: Visit the galleries in Spirit Square, formally Charlotte’s First Baptist Church, which is now a multi-arts complex housing innovative theater, exhibits, visiting performers, classes, and studios. Tour fee includes all transportation, entrance fees, taxes and gratuities. A lunch stop will be made at Spirit Square where there are many restaurant choices for you to have lunch on your own.

Speed Sensations–Lowe’s Motor Speedway/Hendrick Motorsports
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
1:00 PM–5:00 PM
$42.00 per person (excluding lunch)
Minimum: 30 people

Thanks to a little moonshine business and some really fast cars, North Carolina is known as a racing capital. Well the moonshine has dried up, or so they say, but there are still plenty of fast cars around along with the legends that drove them into the history books.

The old barns where they built the cars are gone now, replaced by high-tech engineering marvels that are producing super speedway marvels. You will visit two of the shops that are making American Heroes.

Lowe’s Motor Speedway: This state of the art facility is home to two of the NASCAR season’s races. We will tour the facility and visit the gift shop. Weather permitting we will even take the tour bus around the track for a spin.

Hendrick Motorsports Museum: The designing and testing of cars and engines for all of the Hendrick race teams takes place at this facility. It is a 70+ acre complex, and more than 700 engines are built on-site each year. A visit to the 15,000-square-foot Hendrick Museum and Speed Shop will give you a good idea on just how big the sport is when you see the showcase exhibits that span almost two decades of HMS racing. Tour includes transportation, entrance fees, and escort.

For those who are interested in a little bit more of a thrill, the Richard Petty Driving School may be able to provide you with a ride along on the track. Reservations for ride-along packages are an additional $98.00; availability will be determined in November 2006. Rain will cancel the ride along program.

Queens Lunch Cruise–Catawba Queen
Thursday, March 29, 2007
12:00 NOON–3:00 pm
$70.00 (includes lunch)
Minimum: 30 people

Lake Norman in North Carolina is the largest man-made lake in the state, and it is sometimes called an “Inland Sea,” with over 520 miles of beautiful shoreline.

The Lake Norman area consists of several small towns and communities surrounding the lake and Lake Norman State Park. It is now one of the most rapidly growing and popular areas in North Carolina. Some interesting fact about the lake:

Lake Norman's deepest point is over 100 feet, and the average depth is 25 feet.
Lake Norman holds approximately 3,200,000,000 gallons of water, having a weight of approximately 13,600,000 tons.
Lake Norman's shoreline measures approximately 520 miles, more than the coastlines of North and South Carolina combined.
During the Revolutionary War, a battle was fought on February 1, 1781 at almost the exact spot where Cowan's Ford Dam now sits. Militia General William Lee Davidson, for whom Davidson College is named, was killed in the battle.
There have been several unusual sightings around Lake Norman, including a mysterious cat-like creature known as a wampus, UFOs, man-sized catfish and an alligator or two.

Your tour will take you on an Afternoon Cruise along Lake Norman aboard the Catawba Queen. This reproduction river boat is a page from the romantic past, when Side wheel Steamboats carried passengers and freight on the Great Rivers of America. A knowledgeable riverboat Captain is at the helm on every cruise and will add to the pleasure of viewing the scenic beauty of Lake Norman. The cruise is 1.5 hours and lunch is provided. Tour includes transportation, lunch, fees, taxes, gratuities and escort.

Silver Lining Of The Carolinas–Tour of the Biltmore Estate
Friday, March 30, 2007
8:30 AM–5:30 PM
$120.00
Minimum: 20 people

A visit to Biltmore Estate is a full day’s adventure. Enjoy the beautiful scenic ride to an estate where the driveway is measured in miles and the floor plan is measured in acres. Some of the highlights of The Biltmore Estate Tour are…

The Story of the Estate: On Christmas Eve of 1895, George Vanderbilt opened the doors of his Biltmore Estate to guests for the first time. The 250-room house contained many amenities, including central heat, mechanical refrigeration, electric lights and appliances, and indoor bathrooms. These necessities, as we would now consider them, were unheard-of luxuries at that time. You will discover priceless works of art and furnishings collected during George Vanderbilt’s world travels. Downstairs you will see how eighty servants ran the day-to-day operations of the estate. You will also see how guests spent their indoor leisure hours exercising, bowling, and swimming.

Tour includes transportation, escort, entrance fees, self guided home and garden tour.

Other Features of the Estate:

Frederick Law Olmstead, brilliant landscape designer, who also designed New York’s Central Park, created the gardens and grounds.
The Winery, established in 1985, follows George Vanderbilt’s original concept of a self-supporting European estate. The 90,000 square foot facility is located in the former estate dairy operation
On your own you can choose a dining option at one of four scrumptious restaurants on the Estate.

Cancellation Information for Local Tours
The possibility that one or more persons who has already signed up for a tour will have to cancel must be anticipated. For this reason, the following refund and cancellation policies will apply:

If a person signs up and pays for a tour and then cancels in writing, faxed to (704) 332-5099, or e-mailed to vicki@charlottearrangements.com by Friday, February 16, 2007, there will be a $10 processing fee for all cancellations. No ticket switching or name changing with the registrar will occur after February 16, 2007. No refunds are available for cancellations on-site. No refunds will be issued after Friday, February 16, 2007.
If a tour is cancelled due to insufficient registration, customers will be given the opportunity to either receive a full refund or to select another tour, if seating is available.