Merry Christmas

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White Thanksgiving

"I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving"
(sung to the melody of White Christmas)

The Moran Mansion, 7 a.m.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


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Fire & Ice

Our newly restored Spa Fireplace was unveiled this past week. The display is called "Fire & Ice" and features beautiful Orcas Island North Beach rock.




"The Pacific Northwest owes much of its scenic beauty to almost unimaginable geologic activity, from moving tectonic plates and volcanic eruptions to retreating glaciers. The San Juan Islands were created when glaciers advanced out of Canada and filled Puget Sound with an estimated 2,383 cubic miles of ice. As the glaciers retreated, the melting ice formed a huge freshwater lake in Puget Sound where glacial till mixed with marine sediments. The retreating glaciers carved deep channels through these sediments. This activity resulted in ancient mountain tops becoming the islands. Today’s beaches are awash with a variety of rocks smoothed through the ages."

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Happy Halloween

The Femme Fatale of Rosario Resort
Orcas Island, Washington
From the book "Ghost Stories of the Pacific Northwest" by Margaret Read McDonald

Rosario Resort on Orcas Island occupies the former mansion of Robert Moran. In 1939 the mansion changed owners and a flamboyant lady by the name of Alice Rheem took residence. Rumour has it that her husband bought the remote property as a useful place to ensconce Alice and her drinking habit. She became a familiar figure on the island, riding around on a motor scooter, often after one drink too many, sometimes dressed only in her red nightgown. And she was known to have a proclivity for handsome young soldiers, bringing them back to the mansion whenever her husband was away. Alice eventually died in the mansion, supposedly a victim of too much drink. But she seems not to have left quite yet.

In 1986 Alice was causing havoc. A tired housekeeping employee bedded down in an empty room in the mansion one night rather than drive home. Just as she was dropping off to sleep, she noticed a shadow pass across the wall. Turning on the light, she saw nothing. But the shadow moved again and something touched her hand. She waited and seeing nothing was about to trun off the light and go back to bed when she felt fingers caressing her hand. The girl bolted from the hotel, tossing the key to the desk clerk. "There's something in that room!" He shrugged, put the key back on the hook, and noticed that it was midnight.

As it happened, a trio of entertainers had been staying in the room next to her that night. They complained as they dropped off their key in the morning. "How long will that woman be staying next to us?" The desk clerk assured them that she had already left at midnight, the night before. But the entertainers had been kept awake all night, they said, by her carousing. Just before midnight they'd seen the light under the door go on and off three times. then the bed began to creak and the moans of passionate lovemaking started up. they were kept awake all night. The key to the room still hung on its hook and the desk clerk hadn't given it to anyone else. The hotel staff suspect that Alice was at work.



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Spa Open House

Our talented Spa Therapists treated guests to a sampling of our spa menu services during a recent Spa Open House. Decléor Product representatives were on hand discussing and sampling their product. Local Nutritionist Beth Smith, R.D. provided a very healthy and delicious spread featuring "super foods of the season." Thank you all for a wonderful evening!



Massage Therapists Sukima Hampton, Michael Mitchell, Heather Segault and Erin Quies provide Open House guests an "AHHHH" moment.


Rosario neighbors meet by the fire.


Nutritionist Beth Smith, owner Jan Barto and Spa Director Jaylin Peacock discuss health and wellness.

Great food was provided by nutritionist Beth Smith, R.D.


Esthetician Kimberly Troub provided manicures and pedicures.


Decléor representatives Anita Sundaram and Roseanne Kahn discuss their product line.



The Quilted Pig Restaurant provided the wine.



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Great for Families!

Check out the family that checked into the marina today!




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A Beautiful Orcas Island Day

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How to Get a Ford

"Take a little gasoline,
and get a little oil.
Take a little wire,
and make a little coil.
Get a little piece of tin,
and get a little board.
Put them together,
and you have a little Ford."

Look who stopped by Rosario Resort yesterday – The Three Rivers Model T Club for the Tri-Cities. They look right at home in front of the Moran Mansion!



A 1925 Model T Pick-Up (very few were made over a six month period).


A 1915 Model T "Touring" model.


A 1926 Model T.

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Marina Staff 2010

FAREWELL TO OUR 2010 MARINA STAFF! Pictured with General Manager Christopher Peacock are Erik Hansen, Harbormaster Terry Jones, Kelsea Barto, Cara Peacock, Cody Smith, Matt Morrish, Noam Elkayam and Resident Manager Jolene Versailles. Jenole Peacock is pictured with her pet starfish. THANK YOU!





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Horse Chestnut R.I.P.

It is with great sadness to report that the Horse Chestnut Tree in the Mansion Circle entrance fell over this past week. Combine 80 years, branches full of leaves and full grown chestnuts, add weight from rainwater and wind from the east against a mostly rotted trunk and you unfortunately get a tree on the ground. Several local craftsman gathered up the wood for future bowls and musical instruments!









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Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is celebrating its 13th season this year and recently held a reception at Rosario Resort & Spa. The two-week summer Chamber Music Festival features internationally renowned musicians, many of whom are drawn to return to perform with Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann and Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura Parker.

It was a gorgeous day as guests entered along the mansion waterfront promenade, past the mansion pool to arrive at the pool lawn event. General Manager Christopher Peacock greets Jon Kimura Parker, internationally acclaimed concert pianist who has performed with orchestras all over the world and delighted Orcas Island audiences for years.






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Galileo at Rosario

Rosario Resort recently hosted the Rosario Property Owners Association and a presentation by member Mark Thompson, who presented "Galileo 1610," a living history production; a dramatic, musical and comical odyssey back to the life and times of Galileo Galilei, the famous 17th century Italian scientist and philosopher. It commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s discoveries with his telescope in 1610.




Dressed in authentic Renaissance attire as Galileo, Mark Thompson, a cantorial soloist and amateur astronomer, tells the fascinating story of “The Father of Modern Science,” drawing from the actual correspondence and writings of Galileo, as well as those of his many biographers. His performance at Rosario also coincided with the height of the Perseid Meteor Showers, which were very visible later in the evening here on Orcas Island.



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Flags at Rosario

We love flags at Rosario Resort!







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MV Olympus

What a treat that the MV Olympus sailed into the Rosario Marina on Orcas Island!




The yacht was launched on May 14, 1929 at the New York Yacht, Launch and Engine Company yard in Morris Heights, New York. George Callendine Heck, who commissioned the yacht to be the largest ever built by the yard, was a partner in a Wall Street investment firm. During the glamorous 1920's, Mr. Heck used the yacht to commute from his two estates on Long Island to Wall Street, requiring her low profile design in order to avoid having the bridges opened during his commute to work. At the time of her launching, her original name was"Junaluska" in honor of the lake in North Carolina contained within the vast land holdings where Heck spent his childhood summers.



The yacht was purchased by George Converse (Converse Shoes) and his beautiful wife, silent film star Mary Stuart. Both experienced and able yachters, they bring the yacht on her own hull from the east coast, through the Panama Canal to her new home in Southern California. The yacht stayed busy in the Southern California social scene, as George Converse serves as Commodore of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club in 1940. She also picks up several movie roles including use as a prop in the Shirley Temple movie "Captain January" and the Claudette Colbert/Rudy Vallee movie "The Palm Beach Story." She travels back and forth between Long Beach, Los Angeles and Catalina Island. The busy social scene of the late 1930's and early 1940's is abruptly interrupted by World War II and the yacht is conscripted into service as a Navy Patrol vessel.

George Converse


Mary Stuart

The staterooms on the yacht feature a wonderful vintage swimsuit collection!




Following the War, the yacht is declared "surplus property" by the U.S. Government, and Washington Governor Monrad Wallgren finds out from his good friend, President Harry Truman, that the yacht is going to be auctioned. The State of Washington is the sole bidder for the boat, acquiring the ship for only $15,000 and putting her on the books of the State of Washington as a "fisheries patrol vessel." The yacht is renamed "Olympus" after Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Olympic National Forest. President Truman and Governor Wallgren had worked hard on the legislation to form the Olympic National Forest and we are told that the re-naming of the yacht was in honor of one of Wallgren's proudest achievements. The yacht is completely refitted after her war service, at a cost of over $104,000 of Department of Fisheries funds. President Truman is aboard many times for informal and formal trips, fishing from Olympus' tender. The yacht transports President Truman from Bremerton to Seattle where he starts his "Whistle Stop" Train Campaign tour. The President signs the Olympus log "Harry Truman, Independence, MO, Temporary Address 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."


Harry Truman boarding the MV Olympus



Captain Rick Etsell came up to the Moran Mansion at Rosario to show us this log entry of the christening of Olympus at Rosario:
Mon Sept. 10, 1945 - Rosario
10:54 Lady Violet Boede formally christened this vessel by name “Olympus.” Gov. Mon C. Wallgren & Mrs. Mon C. Wallgren attending. Guests were Mr. Boede, Mrs. Newman, Mr. and Mrs. Niemeyer, Mr. Splitrock (press).
11:02 Dept’d Rosario



M.V. Olympus is used frequently by her owner to support charitable and environmental causes, and is "open for boarding" at various classic boat shows in the Pacific Northwest during the year, for all to admire. We thank Captain Richard "Rick" Etsell for the wonderful tour of the Olympus!

Visit the Yacht Olympus Web Site

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Magic Forest

My favorite part of weddings is checking out how the wedding planner has designed the reception space. Here is another fabulous Leslie Ginnes design (Patina Floral and Design) transforming the waterfront Discovery House into a magic forest... under the Orcas Island Sun!









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