Making dreams come true with Make-A-Wish Hawaii

I was honored when Make-A-Wish Hawaii contacted me and asked if I would photograph a special wish. I think it’s a great program and I was more than happy to help!  Chase had a very cool, very specific wish – to have a WWII fighter jet experience. Stephanie was coordinating the wish and as she began to call around and plan the details, she found some incredible people that wanted to make this wish a memorable experience. They kept adding and adding and adding until it turned into a 2-day event.

Here’s a glimpse of Chase’s wish (it may load slowly, it’s picture heavy!).

We started our day out at the airport to fly in … a plane. Okay, I was focused on taking photographs and missed a lot of the plane talk. Maybe someone knows what type it is? The important thing is that it’s a WWII fighter jet and that Chase was going for a ride complete with aerial stunts. He came back a bit queasy.

 

He had an a great time, but was a bit queasy from the stunts. That look on his face – so stoked!

Our next stop was the Pacific Aviation Museum where we had a tour of the main museum and hangar 79 including some practice with a flight simulator. This is a great place to visit if you have airplane lovers in your family. I’ll have to come back here with my kids. I think the trick will be escaping the gift shop.

After lunch we drove out onto the reef runway at Honolulu International Airport. It was incredible to be so close to these massive jets as took off. After the commercial jets, the f-15 jets took their turn along with their refueling planes. Did you know that they actually refuel in flight?

 

We made a quick stop at Hickam AFB to get an up close look at the f-15s …

… and then one more plane before the day was through. I wish I could remember the name of this plane. They flew it over from Kalaeloa just so Chase could see it.

The next day we drove up to the north shore to take a glider flight at Dillingham airfield. I was planning on taking Micah on a glider flight for his birthday. The receptionist told me that preschoolers and even toddlers have gone in the gliders, but many chicken out. She recommended a short ride or suggested just sitting in the plane. It turns out most of the young kids are thrilled to sit inside and have someone tilt the wings a bit.

I was deliriously excited when they told me there was room in the tow plane if I wanted to take some aerial photos. And again when they asked if I wanted to go for one more ride. The glider was a little tube, not fun for the claustrophobic, but the tow plane was open and really fun.

Okay, that was a long one! It was a great adventure that I was happy to document and share with a special family!