Here at Âé¶čÊÓÆ”, we tend to be pretty private people. But, we’re going to step out of our comfort zone for a second to share something pretty special that’s going on right now.

Eighteen-year-old Ireland and her parents, Allen and Carrie Jo, are currently aboard a de Havilland Otter. They are headed to the San Juans for a whale watching adventure with .

What makes this flight so unique?

Ireland. She’s an extraordinary young woman. Since seventh grade she’s been fighting ulcerative colitis. This painful, inflammatory bowel disease causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract.

Despite the endless hours of treatments and drug testing, compassionate heart and determined spirit shines through. To say she is full of life is an understatement. This girls smile lights up the room.

We were incredibly honored when contacted us about granting her wish. Thank you to all who participated.

About Kids Wish Network

Making dreams come true. That’s Kids Wish Network’s mission. This amazing nonprofit infuses hope and happiness into the lives of children experiencing life-altering situations.

Founded in 1997, the organization now helps more than 50,000 children a year worldwide. Working with children between the ages of 3-years-old and 18-years-old, the wishes they grant bring joy where there was pain and suffering.

If you would like to learn more about this amazing 501(c)(3) or make a donation,

Perhaps he should have known retirement wouldn’t be for him. Hindsight is always 20-20, but hobbies like deep-sea diving and sailboat racing were a dead giveaway. Even so Alan Davis and his wife, Bonnie, loved the idea of a simpler life.

Waving goodbye to their fast-paced days in Silicon Valley, they moved to San Juan Island. In this quiet boaters paradise, locking your front door was optional and doggie play dates consumed the calendar. It seemed ideal.

“What I discovered,” Alan explained, “was that a simpler life is really boring.” We were sitting in his office, located just blocks from Lake Union.

Formerly he’d been the General Manager of the Software Distribution and Support Operation at Intel and the Director of Worldwide Marketing for Intel’s Microprocessor Division.

While he’d fully embraced (and still does) the San Juans as home, Alan needed more. He was ready to go back to work. And he jumped in feet first.

For Alan, feet first jumping seems to be the norm. When he met Bonnie nearly 50 years ago, they were married within eight weeks. “I tell women that and they say, ‘Wow! You knew right away.’ I tell men that same thing and they say, ‘Wow! You’re darn lucky,’” he told me.

I agree with the women. Why? Because Alan has an incredible intuition and the brains to match. After all, he married a woman whose love of boating, animals and eating shellfish matches his own.

So when a venture capitalist friend of his mentioned a company in trouble and asked if Alan if he wanted to help, he said yes – immediately.

Within days, Alan went to visit. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. “I called my wife and told her I’d be back in two or three weeks. Eighteen months later, I finally made it home. The company was on NASDAQ,” he said.

That’s how he started in the consulting business – by jumping right in. “I did that first one. And then the phone rang and I did another. And then another,” he told me.

The phone hasn’t quit ringing. Today, he’s a management consultant at . He and his colleagues have helped countless companies throughout the world overcome difficulties. Their problem solving approach gives companies the opportunity to pull up their bootstraps, keep their doors open and their employees working.

Life is no longer boring. Splitting his time between the island and mainland lets Alan fully enjoy the “simple” life with Bonnie. “We have two dogs, three cats and two parrots. They keep us pretty busy,” he said.

Alan, it’s a pleasure to help you travel between the best of both worlds.

Back in the days of “You’ve got mail” and Yahoo email addresses – back when online dating was a tad bit taboo and flip phones were the rage – Tammy Goodall signed up for a free week of Match.com.

Thank goodness for the Internet.

Thirteen years later, on the rooftop of a Lake Union houseboat, Tammy and her husband Tom Gerkens shared their story and a glass of wine with me.

It’s not a classic boy meets girl, bended knee kind of tale. Theirs is an untraditional epic love, so whacky it has to be real.

Theirs is a story that’s taken them around the world, across the country and up several dozen flights of stairs. It’s taught them seasickness is real; tuna tastes best when caught, sliced and eaten with your fingers on the back of a boat; and home is wherever you’re standing (or floating) together.

While Tammy and Tom love Seattle, they’ve only lived here a short time. Originally, they met in San Francisco.

Unlike the classic coffee shop, ‘I met you online,’ stranger meet up, Tom went for it. That first night he took Tammy to dinner and a Sharks game. “We talked the whole night. And at the end, he walked me to my car and didn’t make a sleazy move on me or anything,” Tammy recalled.

The 3-Year Sail

They’d been dating eight months when Tom went to Hawaii on a family vacation. Tammy sent him with Tania Aebi’s Maiden Voyage – the tale of an 18-year-old barfly who spent two years sailing around the world.

Tom read. He read a little more. And then, he called Tammy. “This book is really good. You want to sail the world with me?” he asked.

“I said yes,” she told me. “I didn’t think he meant it. I certainly didn’t think he meant we’d do it anytime soon.”

But when Tom returned, the two started planning. With just four weekend sailing classes, they sold everything they owned, bought a 46-foot sailboat from a shop in Westlake and set sail around the world.

At times they were stranded and at times they were sick. But together they made it, visiting continent after continent, eating what they caught and taking shifts at the helm.

The Grand Central Station Proposal

Under the guise of his celebrating his mother’s birthday, Tom lured Tammy to New York City. She didn’t think anything of it. Nor did she think anything of it when he suggested they visit Grand Central Station.

“I just told her there was going to be some event and I wanted to check it out,” Tom said.

An event it was. March 13, 2013 at 3:13 PM, the drums of a Brooklyn marching band erupted within the lofty arches and elegant marble of Grand Central Station.

They played for 19 seconds. That’s how long it took the police to get there and shut them down.

Nineteen seconds isn’t a lot of time. It certainly wasn’t long enough for their family and friends to unroll the sign Tom had made. It read:

Tammy will you marry me? Love Tom

But, it was enough to knock Tammy’s socks off. “I was absolutely floored. He’d arranged for all our friends and family to be there. I just started crying,” she said.

A Seaplane Wedding

Tammy and Tom like to do things a little differently. They’re the kind of folks who enjoy touring the country on motorcycles and took living at the top of Queen Anne as a challenge to get in shape.

When it came to planning their wedding, they were determined it be untraditional. Toying with a variety of ideas, they arrived at seaplanes organically. From the rooftop deck of their new Lake Union houseboat, they’d been watching the planes take off and land for weeks. A pilot himself, Tom was intrigued by Âé¶čÊÓƔ’s water landing babies and when Tammy discovered Joy Stewart’s – a catered, seaplane adventure – they were sold.

And so, on an afternoon in June, Tammy, Tom; their sons Kyle, Warren and Philippe; Tammy’s maid of honor and sister, Laura; and Tom’s best man and his wife jumped into an Otter. They headed to Dabob Bay – a secluded beach located on Hood Canal, accessible only by seaplane or boat.

“It was incredible,” Tom said. “Eventually, I could make out a few houses across the way. But really, we were in the middle of nowhere.”

From the red carpet their pilot, Joe Leatherman, rolled out upon arrival to the champagne Joy had on ice, every detail was cared for. Tammy said:

Joe was a sweet heart. He was so bubbly and excited that it felt like he was part of the celebration. That really made it special. The food was amazing, especially the chocolate covered strawberries. And, our photographer did a great job capturing the entire day.

To top off the excitement, Joe tipped his wings to the wedding party after he dropped them off.

Congratulations you two. It was an absolute pleasure to hear about the adventures of your courtship and your wedding ceremony. Here’s to many more years of exploring together.

Joy Stewart,
Joy’s sea-to-sky odysseys are food-filled adventures that you’ll never forget. Join her aboard a Âé¶čÊÓÆ” seaplane for a trip to a remote picnic beach, where all you’ll have to worry about is having enough room to eat all the goodies she prepares.

Renata Steiner,
Renata is a Seattle based portrait, wedding and event photographer who specializes in making her couples feel at ease. Tammy said:

We really wanted our pictures to look natural and unstaged. That’s exactly what Renata did. She captured the moment as it actually happened.

There aren’t too many seaplanes in Connecticut, but Phil and Doreen Mikan were pretty sure their twins would be fascinated by seeing planes land on the water. They weren’t wrong.

In the summer of 2012, the couple visited our Emerald City with their then five-year-old rug rats. They made sure to stay close to Lake Union. “I knew there’d be seaplanes. But, I didn’t know what an awesome operation Âé¶čÊÓÆ” had right on the lake,” Phil told me.

Two years later, their kids have not forgotten our seaplanes. Just the other day, Phil’s son Andrew asked his dad to take a picture of him in his Âé¶čÊÓÆ” shirt. “Âé¶čÊÓÆ” could use it in an advertisement,” Andrew suggested.

Andrew’s sister Maris was quick to add that he should pose in their own airplane, as “That would make it even better.” (The twins recently acquired a teeter-totter shaped airplane that has quickly become a favorite outdoor toy.)

Andrew and Marisa – You weren’t wrong. The picture is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing!

Staying In Seattle
It’s no surprise Phil knew staying at the would be the perfect location. He was stationed in our fair city with Coast Guard for two years. “Seattle is one of my favorite cities in the entire world,” he said.

Phil – It’s one of ours two. We can’t wait for you and your family to come back and visit again!

The Mikans also visited the and Seattle’s . They visited Port Angeles and Port Townsend. Talk about a fun trip!

Have your own Âé¶čÊÓÆ” story? I’d love to hear all about it. Leave it in a comment below or shoot me an email at: Mikaela at KenmoreAir dot com.