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!

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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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