Is It Nap Time Yet???

Rise and shine everyone!! It's morning!

6:50am - meet in the lobby to catch our bus into town at 7:00.

(Caleb is spreading the love... er rather his cold.  This morning Amber, Kasey, and Stacey all woke up with scratchy throats.)

This wouldn't have been so bad had we not just gone to bed around 1:00am.  Everyone was there, but everyone looked a bit more sleepy than yesterday.

When your cell phone falls off your lap

7:10am - board bus for Cobo Center

7:35am - arrive at Cobo Center

Cat nap on the bus

7:45am - find breakfast at the Blue Star Cafe

Morning Traffic

The tiny cafe offered a little breakfast buffet or small individual items such as bagels, yogurt parfaits, muffins, and juice.  This was a great find in the financial district of Detroit!  Yummy.

8:30am - arrive back at the Cobo Center

The door didn't open until 9am, so we all had a seat on the floor in the lobby area of the Cobo Center.  Sitting turned to lying down and soon most of the group was catching some sleep.  PJ woke everyone up when the doors opened at 9am.

The Cobo Center was our Proclaim Community day.  We were encouraged to spend the day with about 10,000 other youth in the center.  The center was filled with activities to entertain you, make you think, challenge you, and help you create.  

The kids tried many of the activities.  They signed a pledge to knock down barriers surrounding the LGBT community and got tattoos, carried large jugs of water around a track to simulate women in Africa, talked about connections between religion and science rather than keeping them separate, rode a mechanical bull, played in the bumper cars, sat at game tables, discussed diversity and created a diversity poster, jumped off a very large platform into an inflatable bubble, and so much more!  

Signing a promise ribbon 

Sporting their new tattoos

 

Dawson trying a science experiment

Brandon and Paige - science quiz... 9/10

 

How many water droplets fit on a penny?

Building with Knex type pieces

Bumper bikes!  These had to be powered with your feet and steered with your lean.

We found Bishop Zaiser here!

Carrying water jugs

 

And these familiar faces!  HI Kaitlyn and Kristen!

11:45am - meet for lunch and walk the few blocks to The Lafayette Coney Island. 

11:50am - Group picture sponsored by MIF!

This is where the we got to try the famous coney dogs of Detroit. There are two hotdog places right next to each other which are owned by brothers and they fight over who has the best sauce.  We were told by a man coming out of the restaurant that we chose the right one.  Both restaurants were featured on Man vs. Food.

A Coney Island hotdog is a hotdog covered with chili, onions, and mustard.  Most of the kids tried it while some opted for a loose hamburger, plain hotdogs, or fries.

After getting our hotdogs, we sat in the small garden down the street.  We ate on their benches and met one of the people that tend the garden.  The man explained that the garden was filled with crops such as basil, lavender, squash, tomatoes, kale, red beets, carrots, and more.  The garden was put there to show people in the community what types of produce they can grow.  The crops from this small community garden go to food banks or people passing through.  Jonny picked up some basil and Steph and PJ each got a bunch of lavender.

The garden

Jake and James, the pigeon

While we were eating lunch, Jake's friend, the pigeon, returned!  Jake tried to say hi, but the pigeon wasn't having it.  Apparently the pigeons are allowed to fly in front of Jake's face, but he can't stand near them.  This is the best picture we could get.

12:45pm - most of the group heads back to the Cobo Center while Steph and PJ head to CVS to get meds for the sick (which now also includes PJ)

The CVS line is almost as long as the lines at the Cobo Center!

1:30pm - Enjoy more time in the Cobo Center finishing up some activities, meeting new friends, shopping at Old Luther, and relaxing. And the adults may have fallen asleep on the floor for a short while.

5:00pm - start the nearly 1 mile walk to dinner.  Tonight we ate at Detroit Beer Co.

The kids loved this meal and ordered things like grilled cheese, nachos, jambalaya, chicken fingers, and burgers.  We also heard that Jonny kept his table entertained with jokes... but we didn't get to hear any of those at our table.

This sign was on an abandoned building

The face everyone made when Logan announced he had beans for dinner

7:00pm - finish the walk to Ford Field

7:05pm - Hear Bobby Siegfried from Emmanuel's Lutheran Church sing on stage at Ford Field!!!!!!

Bobby on the big screen

We all know Bobby from countless POW events where he regularly sings and plays keyboard.  He submitted recordings to the ELCA and they chose him to be on the satellite stage tonight.  So glad we made it in time to see him.

7:30pm - Tonight we heard speakers talk about sharing other's burdens so no one has to bear it alone.  We heard about a man's move to the US from Puerto Rico, a young girl who studied abroad in Madagascar, and a woman who helps refugees from Central America.  We also heard Blanca sing; an artist from Puerto Rico who was the highlight of many youth's night!

 

9:30pm - exit Ford Field and make the 1 hour walk to our bus lot.

10:30pm - arrive at the bus lot to find our bus slot 224 overflowing once again with about 300 others all waiting for the same bus.

We entertained ourselves by playing Heads Up on Stacey's phone which is just like charades except there is only 1 person guessing and everyone else is acting it out.  Once the entire bus lot cleared out and we were all still standing there, we were put on other buses who drove us back to our hotel.  Tonight we made it back at 11:45 instead of 12:15.  Woohoo!!

PJ has now lost her voice.

11:55pm - Final 15 in Maya, Molly, Sami, and Annelise's room

At the final 15, the kids each got to give their highs and lows of the day.  Highs are things they really really enjoyed while lows are the parts of the day that they did not enjoy.  Most of the lows were the same, but here are some examples:

Highs:  seeing Caleb fall of the chair, sleeping in random places, playing crayons, Jonny’s jokes, carrying the water jugs, dinner & conversations, bedtime, fries, jumping off the platform in the Cobo, riding the escalators, back at the hotel before midnight, meeting new people, getting all my buttons, Blanca, seeing people’s reactions when I handed them crayons, I purchased a kazoo, seeing everyone bond and get along, our group’s patience

Lows:  feeling sick, parking lot, being woken up, cutting my hand on the water jug, losing a bracelet I was given, waking up late, Blanca saying ECLA, losing my voice

12:15am - Say goodnight and head to our rooms to get some MUCH needed sleep.  Tomorrow is our service day and we need lots of rest.

The built in pedometer on my phone says we walked 9 miles today!

Good night, Hope!!