Orbitz Blogger Day

Had a great time at the Orbitz first annual Blogger Day at the company’s headquarters in Chicago. It’s great to see a corporation with a conscience.

Met the president and CEO Barney Harford and learned about the company’s commitment to equal rights for all Americans, and their support for lifting the embargo on Cuba.

And they’re leading a drive to collect signatures to take to Congress to get the Cuban embargo lifted. You can sign up at a website they’ve set up, opencuba.org. They’ve already got 95,000 signatures and they’re just getting started.

This is very important since so many other groups that might be expected to speak up have hesitated to get out front on this issue.

They also have genuine corporate initiatives for sustainable travel, green hotels and carbon offsets.

We also had a boat tour on the Chicago River where docent Charles T. Sanford told us all about the architecture of the city, and about Chicago’s first settlers, Haitian-born Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable and his wife, a member of the Potawatomi Indian tribe.

I’ve been staying at the Amalfi Hotel, which has a real commitment to customer service. Friendly helpful employees, free internet, even free computers in their business center. Just printed out my boarding pass, and I’m all set to get home to the Happy Valley.