December 22nd, 2008 - Thank you Make-A-Wish… thank you Mythbusters
Wow.. I can’t believe it is already over a month since we returned from of wonderful trip to San Francisco. Our feet have not touched the ground since, as we went straight into the end of year celebrations at school etc with the term ending during the first few days of December, so our house has been rather noisy and busy ever since… but the trip was absolutely amazing. Clearly, it isn’t called the ‘Make a Wish Foundation’ for nothing as we felt so incredibly blessed by the whole experience.
Make-a-Wish thought of and organised absolutely everything from the moment we left home – even parking at the airport – right through to our return. We left Brisbane on the morning of Friday 7th November and flew to San Francisco with a stopover in New Zealand. A Make-A-Wish volunteer met us at the airport there with a big welcome balloon and a bag for Cameron with goodies in it as well as our itinerary and city passes. We went straight to our hotel near Pier 39. Having gone back in time we still had Friday afternoon to do things.Â
On Monday a shining black stretch limousine picked us up at the hotel and took us to the Mythbusters studio where we were met by the producers who showed us around and chatted for a while until Jamie and Adam arrived after a little while – just the same as they are on TV. The children were so excited and in awe. They chatted and joked with the kids, and Jamie asked each child where they had come from as there were 3 other families all from the US. They Mythbusters spent most of the time answering many questions from the kids and sharing anecdotes about their experiences busting myths.
After a while we went upstairs and the kids just hung out with Jamie, Adam and thge crew, eating pizza amongst all the props and just having a blast. Then Carrie and Grant came along and hung out with the kids, answering lots of questions and just relaxing with them. It was all very down to earth cool… Eventually it was time to go and our limo was standing by to take us back to the hotel.Â
Cameron just beamed throughout and of course Carlton could easily slip into the lifestyle of the rich and famous very easily. Owen just loved everything and was excited. The whole experience really highlighted the fact that every step we take together as a family is such a blessing, as I think how much has happened during this past year.
Our week in San Francisco was so busy with absolutely everything laid on by the Make-a-Wish Foundation. We had a boat trip to Alcatraz, which was really a lot of fun; then a coach tour over the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods, a Redwood Forest National Park which was beautiful but the highlight for the boys was it was one of the locations where the Star Wars movies were filmed – with a stop in Sausalito, a lovely bay-side village. In addition to all of this we were given City Passes, which provided admission for all of us to all of the main tourist attractions around San Francisco; from the Museum of Modern Art, to unlimited bus and tram rides, a bay cruise, the Aquarium, etc. and so we just had an absolute ball as each day was action packed with exciting stuff to do.Â
The boys particularly enjoyed the Exploratorium, which is a hands, interactive science museum that easily consumes all of the day… and Ripley’s, Believe It Or Not was also a real laugh. The city of San Francisco is beautiful, but not without its very sad side of homelessness and general big city stuff, which was quite a shock to our boys – especially Owen. He was genuinely upset to discover that there were so many people without homes, living on the streets. It reminded us just how fortunate we are to be living on the Sunshine Coast in Australia and what a wonderful life our kids have. We may not have all the trimmings but it is peaceful, beautiful, clean and relatively crime free and in so many ways our kids are protected from so many unpleasant things.
On Friday, the day of departure, we celebrated my birthday taking our last walk around San Francisco. What an amazing trip and all thanks to Make-A-Wish. The children now love the show even more and watch it most mornings at 6:30 am, which is when it is on the Discovery Channel. It all seems so much more real now – even I look at it differently. The Mythbusters team were fantastic – all so attentive and genuinely interested in the children. They clearly recognised that these kids had actually honoured them in a very special way. They obviously have an absolute blast doing what they do and were not at all ‘Hollywood’ types. We will post a video here as soon as Bill has had a chance to edit the many hours of filming we did.
Thanks again to everyone involved in making Cameron’s wish come true.
January 11th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Hi Cameron and Family Happy New Year to you all. I am so glad that you had such an exciting and eventful adventure! Here’s hoping 2009 is a good year for you all. With love Katie, Gordon, Ruby, Lydia and Ella xx