I awoke this morning, packed, and met Syreeta Herbert and Natelegé Whaley in the lobby, and we shared an Uber that transported us to The Hudson Café for breakfast. The restaurant was packed, but luckily, a group left before their table was ready, and the hostess told us that we could sit there instead! We saw Courtney Smith and several other MTP participants at the café, but many others either hadn’t arrived yet or had already eaten and left. I ordered the Graham Cracker Crusted French Toast, which was positively scrumptious! After we ate, I sadly said my farewells and took an Uber back to the Trumbull and Porter Hotel Detroit to finish packing, and called another Uber to take me to the airport.
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This morning, the MTP staff (through mentor Fauzia Musa) called an Uber to transport Natelegé Whaley, Syreeta Herbert, and me from the Trumbull and Porter Hotel to Civilla, a Detroit-based center dedicated to social innovation. Located within Techone, the structure housing TechTown (a hub for Detroit’s business innovations), Civilla was mostly an open room with cubicle-lined walls. Near the front of the office, the MTP staff had arranged rows of fold-up chairs in which we sat and listened to three lecturers as we ate pastries for breakfast.
I woke up this morning after enjoying a fantastic night’s sleep. While the rest of the group walked to Stone Creek Coffee for pastries and then conversed with the Mayor of Milwaukee at the Global Water Center, I ate a delicious breakfast at the hotel and took an Uber to the Urban Ecology Center (UEC) and my only meeting of the day.
We awoke this morning as the train continued its journey through Nebraska. Since we had an hour of free time immediately following breakfast, most of us slept in—a rare treat on this expedition. After eating a quick meal, we gathered in the bubble car to hear our first guest speaker of the day, Danielle Cohn.
While the other participants ate breakfast and listened to speakers at The Commons on Champa this morning, I grabbed food on the train and took an Uber to Thorne Nature Experience, the location of my first meeting today. During the drive to Boulder, I watched the beautiful scenery filled with grassy fields and lakes. Thorne Nature Experience’s building contained a lab with tanks of reptiles and amphibians, and a classroom filled with specimens from a wide variety of natural sciences, including paleontology, ornithology, entomology, and geology. The organization’s backyard was a gorgeous marsh with tall grasses and wildflowers set against a background of Rocky Mountain peaks piercing the sky. Had I grown up in Denver, I would have loved attending summer camp there!
I woke up this morning as the train continued its voyage through Utah. The scenery was so beautiful that the staff delayed scheduled programming. After breakfast, we finished the peer-to-peer resource sharing session and went downstairs for lunch, followed by a Courageous Conversations Workshop led by Randi Gloss, an MTP alumna from last year’s journey.
We awoke this morning at Emeryville Amtrak Station, as the train embarked on its two-day journey to Denver. After breakfast, we had a brief discussion about each of our activities yesterday, including any progress we made with our projects, before we heard our next guest speaker, Ike Theodore Umunnah.
Sleeping on board the train was an experience; when I went to my quarters last night, I realized that the bed literally occupies the length and width of the entire room! We awoke this morning at the Amtrak Oakland Maintenance Facility, where our three cars will remain until tomorrow morning. After breakfast, we donned yellow safety jackets, hard hats, and safety goggles as a rail yard worker escorted us from the train to the sidewalk, and the MTP staff called Ubers to transport us to the Oakland Jack London Square Terminal. We boarded a ferry and sailed across the bay to San Francisco, where the MTP called more Ubers to drive us to The Pearl, an event space hosting the invitation-only Millennial Tech and Change Summit today.
After another night sleeping in The Line’s heavenly beds, we checked out of the hotel. The MTP called several Uber vehicles to take us to breakfast at Homegirl Café, a branch of Homeboy Industries. Homeboy offers training programs, classes, and employment to high-risk individuals in Los Angeles who have been in gangs, in prison, or have some other great barriers to overcome in order to lead successful careers.
I woke up at The Line Hotel this morning, after sleeping in one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever experienced. The beds and comforters at The Line are like sleeping inside clouds—absolutely magnificent! Extremely excited to start my Millennial Trains Project (MTP) journey, I got ready for my meetings at Global Green, USA and Sustainable Works, both located in Santa Monica. As I waited in the lobby for my taxi to arrive, I met a few other participants and some staff from the MTP, which was just icing on the cake, a small taste of the fantastic adventure that awaits us.
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About Me
I'm an environmentalist, naturalist, photographer, and birder who has loved learning about wildlife and the environment my whole life. I graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with a Master of Science in Environmental Science and a Master of Public Affairs and am excited to dedicate my future career to sharing with others my knowledge of and passion for the environment. ArchivesCategories© 2016. All photos used on this website are the sole property of Sarah R. K. Bloom, the photographer and website creator.
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