Earn 5 or 10% OFF your 2nd stay (and have a great time doing it!)

As mentioned in a previous entry, we have put together a special photo scavenger hunt for any and all of our awesome Orcas Island guests! The game is simple and easy-to-do, but as we can attest from our scavenger hunt weekend, it’s loads of fun. Casually looking and finding objects and places of interest, talking to the locals and exploring new areas truly added another layer of excitement to the vacation. We weren’t just enjoying the moment of being there and doing particular activities; we were elevating our senses to a whole new level: our eyes peeled for any target, whether vulture or butterfly, our noses whiffing for any scent, whether breakfast burrito or rose petal and our hands groping for any safe bit of nature, whether while sasquatching or nightcrowing.

Official Contest Rules

50+ points = 5% off your next booking; 100+ points = 10%; the 2nd stay must be booked within a year of receipt; non-redeemable, no cash value.

With every photo we ask that you or one of your party be present somewhere in the picture excluding the Critters and Creatures Category. Capturing a photo of the Creatures is hard enough without a person trying to stand and pose with them .

So without further ado, we present to you….

The Orcas Ohana Scavenger Hunt List:

The more difficult it is to find/do/see/photograph, the more points you can earn! And we strongly suggest printing off this list to carry with you as you vacation around the island. It can guide you to many wondrous adventures!

Critters and Creatures Category: [General Difficulty Level: 5 of 5]

• A Bald Eagle (10 pts)
• Any Kind of Whale except Orcas Whale (10 pts)
• Orcas Whale (15 pts)
• Any Kind of Seal (5 pts)
• Any Bearded Local (2 pts per local)
• A Red Fox (10 pts)
• Horse (5pts)
• Goat (3pts)
• Blacktail deer (10 pts)–these are everywhere! Be careful when driving
• Any Bird on this List (excluding the aforementioned Bald Eagle) (1 pt)
• Island Marble Butterfly (extremely rare apparently) 10 pts
• Pacific Chorus Frog (5 pts)
• Townsends Vole (10 pts)
• North American River Otter (15 pts)
• Rabbit (8 pts)
• These purple starfish (7 pts)
• Garter Snake (3 pts) (liability disclaimer: ensure it’s a garter snake before approaching)
• Northern Alligator Lizard (15 pts) (they are sneaky and they bite!)

Pretty Plant Category: [General difficulty level: 3 of 5]

• Wildflowers (3 pts per flower type): Take this guide with you to capture them all for a Bonus 10 pts!
• Big Leaf Maple (2 pts)
• Pacific Madrone (3 pts)
• Red Alder (tree) (2 pts)
• Garry Oak (tree) (2 pts)
• Stinging Nettle (3 pts)
• Orange Honeysuckle (3 pts)
• Nootka Rose (3 pts)
• Oregon Grape (Tall/Low) (3 pts)
• White Moss Bed (5 pts)
• Skunk Weed (2 pts)

Poignant Places Category: [General Difficulty Level: 2 of 5]

3 Points except when marked otherwise

• Saturday Farmers Market
• Outlook Inn
• Cascade Falls
• Mt Constitution’s Lookout Tower
• Turtleback Mountain
• Turtleback Farm Inn
• Buck Bay Shellfish Farm
• Doe Bay Resort General Store
• Inn at Ship Bay
• Any Surrounding Island of Orcas (Matia, Turn, Sucia, etc) (7 pts each)
• Obstruction Pass State Park
• Orcas Island Vineyards
• Sea View Theater
• Any Orcas Island Church (2 pts each)
• Orcas Center
• Orcas Island Historical Museum
• Orkila Garden
• Camp Orkila
• Island Hoppin’ Brewery
• The Eastsound Labyrinth
• Any Organic Farm
• Eastsound Outdoor Ampitheatre (2 pts if empty, 5 pts if someone is dancing on stage–either you or a performer)
• Deer Harbor Park
• Eastsound Waterfront Park
• Westsound
• Beach Crescent
• Buckhorn
• Cormorant Bay
• North Beach
• The Secret Garden
• Agave Tequila Bar
• Secret Peace Grotto next to Ohana
• Warren Miller Skate Park
• Odd Fellows Hall
• The Moss Bed Secret Grotto
• The Mysterious, Abandoned Well

Active Activities Category: [General Difficulty Level: 4 of 5]

All the following activities are 5 points!

• Riding Mopeds
• Whale Watching Tours
• Kayaking
• Standup Paddling
• Music Festivals
• The Ferry Ride
• Massage + Spa Relaxing
• Boating
• Scuba Diving
• Cycling
• Geocaching
• Yoga Class
• Dancing in the Forest or the Ohana Back Deck
• Sasquatching (perhaps this activity needs further explanation)
• Nightcrowing (this one also)
• Ziplining
• Gaga Ball
• Playing H-O-R-S-E

the Orcas Island Artifacts category: [general difficulty level: 4 of 5]

• Sacajawea (3 pts)
• Song of Separation (2 pts)
• Dali Lama (5 pts)
• Secret Magic Glass (10 pts)
• Orca Whale Carving (2 pts)
• Any Orcas Island Sign (2 pts)
• Any Different Orcas Island Speed Sign (1 pt each)
• Any Totem Pole Carving (2 pts)
• The Lounging Lizard (5 pts)
• The Old Stove (3 pts)
• The Parsley in the Tree (3 pts)
• Any Red Hydrant (1 pt each)
• Big Peace Sign (3 pts)

Here is a handy PDF of the Scavenger List for your printing-out pleasure: Orcas Ohana Photo Scavenger Hunt List

If you find anything else during your hunt that you think you should be added to any of these categories, let us know and we’ll be sure to include it with the possibility of giving you bonus discovery points! If you have any questions about this contest, its rules or reasons, feel free to contact us for more details.

Looking to stay at our awesome vacation rental this year? Check out our rates and reservations page here or browse the home page herefor more reasons on why Orcas Ohana is your play to stay for that San Juan Islands trip!

Orcas Island has some speed sticklers all about--be sure to take note of these!

There are many public hoops scattered about Orcas--we found this one nearby!

Sample platters and peanuts! Num num numb....my face is numb.

And finally it has come: our very own local brewery! And it’s got that comfy, natural Orcas Island feel!

We were 3 thirsty men when we arrived, our dogs (feet) and dog (Jazzy) all tired out from a day of tramping through the woods of nearby Camp Orkila. But we left as 3 spirited souls, ramped up for more adventure and ready to hit the town of Eastsound. One might even say that we got all hopped up on beer at this place…no doubt about it (lol? Do you like alcohol-related puns?).

Anyhoo, after ordering a couple trays of samplers, our official recommendations are the Old Madrona or the White Cap brews. Something you may want to try yourself though, if you’re not a complete beer purist that is, would be mixing beers to find your own particular taste. By Tray 2, Jason (our fearless Orcas Ohana owner) was a bona fide expert at this mixological system and he still stands behind his crafty ways even today. In the end, however, you may just want to ask the friendly, helpful staff about what brew is best for your tastes.

Let’s see…anything else about the Island Hoppin’ brewery that has slipped my mind? Ah yes!

They give guided tours of the brewery (although we didn’t take one because there are windows that let you see the inner workings from the comfort of your own beer bar) and there are bottomless peanuts (although by the end of 6 beer trays worth of side-nibbling we had found the bottom). Also, there is a neat little outdoor patio area for your outdoor drinking needs and  plenty of books on beer lying around for those of you looking for some home-brewing tips to take with you (the knowledge, not the books themselves of course).

For more information on this awesome addition to Orcas Island and Eastsound, please check out the Island Hoppin’ Brewery website here!

We’ve mentioned before the great quirkiness of our favorite Orcas Island town (that’s Eastsound, of course–down with Olga Village!). Perhaps ‘great quirkiness’ is a bit of an exaggeration; it’s really more of a subtle group of peaceful oddities. However you want to describe it, in the end, you may be wanting, before your visit to Orcas Island, to get connected with local island news. Eastsound has all sort of lovely events, particularly in the warmer summer months, it might be helpful to get yourself informed of the happenings before you attempt to temporarily integrate with the locals.

The Islands’ Sounder :: The Latest and Greatest on Orcas Island

The Islands’ Sounder is going to be your main source for the best, most informative Eastsound news, but it’s important to use your skills of discernment to find the right pieces of news related to your stay. Here are some examples of what we could glean:

• The Eagles are at War: An injured eagle was found with his arch nemesis, talons locked and boulder squeezed. The eagle, with the help of Wolf Hollow (animal rescue), has returned to flight and fight. On your visit, keep your eyes and ears peeled for the war-scarred fighter now known to the Orcas Ohana community as “the Phoenix from the Battle Between the Boulders” (or PBBB for short).
• The Echoes of Discrimination: Even taken by the most innocent of hearts, this is surely a controversial piece of news. The Islanders are given first crack at reserving local campgrounds for their leisurely pleasure while the Outsiders are left with their camping scraps. Terms like “Outsiders” and “discrimination” may be hyperbolic in this situation, but they need to be said because that’s how news about news works. Watch out for this egregious use of Island segregation rights (again, greatly exaggerated, but necessary nonetheless)
• Polar Bear Plunge: We don’t want to read too much into this article for fear of building up dangerous stereotypes and blacking out from information overload–so we’ll just use conjecture from the title and the picture to fill in this event’s details. This could be a quaint annual ritual in which people en masse jump into an icy cold body of water: a way of cleansing and revitalizing themselves for the year to come. Or it could be an entire town’s cult quest for polar bear skins in a rite of passage ceremony which states that one must return to dry land with a polar bear skin or remain in the icy depths until the spring sun comes. We’ll let the people decide which one be the truth: that’s democracy!

Stay tuned for more important news given secondhand from your favorite Orcas Island Vacation Rental: Orcas Ohana (located a short walk from downtown Eastsound with a fantastic view of East Sound Bay!)

 

Not an Orcas Island lighthouse, but still, so much symbolism!

Okay all you Orcas Island Vacation Rental seekers out there, we’re coming at you this week with some major resolutions sure to make you say, “Oh yeah, I like that one–I want that for myself!” As we know Resolutions are at their best when they are really general and universal (err or maybe it’s the other way around?). “I want to get healthy!–I want peace on Earth!–I want to recycle more!” A good resolution should be like these, truly admirable and achievable by us all. If anyone wants to get healthy, they may monitor their diet and get more exercise. If someone wants to recycle more, they can put things in different boxes on their curbs. If someone wants peace on Earth then they can hide in a box in their bedrooms and shut all the blinds forever–instant and long lasting peace!

So with the idea of sharing goals in mind, we’re coming at y’all with our Orcas Ohana New Year’s Resolutions!

1. Island Camping/Exploring: When you stay on Orcas Island in your nice Ohana vacation rental you may be tempted to stay inside all day to enjoy the luxurious, relaxing environment it provides (jacuzzi hot tub, oh yeeeaah!)–and while there is nothing wrong with this strategy whatsoever, we are feeling a bit more adventurous this year–so, as wily veterans of Orcas Island, we have made the resolution to push ourselves a bit further this year and explore all the surrounding islands to discover what magic, mayhem or mysteries they may have to offer. For more info on the surrounding islands and their secrets, please feel free to peruse our collection of Island Notes (like this one on Matia Island!)
2. Finding and Identifying Local Wildlife: This is going to be an eventual challenge to all of our Orcas Ohana visitors out there: it involves getting out around the wild areas of Orcas Island and the surrounding sea in search of as many of the local wildlife and fauna as possible. The Bald Eagle, the Orca Whale or the ever-elusive Northwestern Alligator Lizard are all out there waiting for us. Who will be the first explorer to capture them all (in a picture of course)!? Stay tuned because this will involve rebate moneys!
3. Attending One Quirky Island Event: The town of Eastsound is well-known for its quirkiness and perhaps this is a quality best understood through participation. This year, during our own stay out at the best Orcas Island Vacation Rental, we promise ourselves to attend at least one outdoor concert or one vortex committee hearing or one impromptu Northwestern Alligator Lizard dance at the local pub. We may do all of these things, and that’s even better, but if we can do just one, we feel our level of Stay Satisfaction shall increase immensely.

For more info on the San Juan Islands or our lovely Orcas Island Vacation Rental, please free to skim through our other blog entries for anything and everything you ever did or didn’t want to know about your potential stay with us !

Come and uncover something special....

Orcas Island and its central town Eastsound are famous for their eclectic flavor, so you can bet the local population won’t be simply hibernating through these lovely Northwest winter months–although actually hibernating would be an awesome form of eclecticism, don’t you think? Come to think of it, maybe that’s what we all should be doing, hibernating these days away in preparation for spring. We could just curl up under our blankets, stay inside our cave-homes and set our alarms for March….but no! No! We must attack the Winter! We must get out into the world! We must go to other places so that we may hibernate there instead!

In last week’s addition, we mentioned that you all should stay tuned for some more Orcas Island Winter activities, and so, without further ado, we present…..

Orcas Island Official Winter Events for Family, Friends and Mysterious Strangers You Met at a Local Eastsound Bookshop!

These events are courtesy of Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce:

• THE MIRÓ QUARTET LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THEM BEFORE (Thursday, December 6 & Friday, December 7 @ 6 pm at Rosario Resort):  We’re thrilled to announce that the Miró Quartet is braving the wind and rain to travel to Orcas in the winter months to perform for our annual “Leaves of Gold” Fundraising Concert. When Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann heard they were performing in Oregon the first weekend in December, she asked if they would consider a “side” trip to Orcas. Lucky for us, it didn’t take much convincing! The historic Music Room at Rosario will be the elegant setting for this classical concert. Daniel Ching, William Fedkenheuer, John Largess and Joshua Gindele will perform Beethoven’s Harp String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 74, and Schubert’s monumental String Quartet in G Major, D887. All the proceeds benefit Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival programming and music education.  “Leaves of Gold” tickets are $150, and include the sumptuous after-concert buffet reception in the Orcas Room of the Rosario Mansion.  

• OPEN MIC & PIZZA THURSDAYS AT DOE BAY   (Every Thursday @ 7:30 pm, please note there is no open mic on Thanksgiving): Join island visitors and residents to share music, spoken word, and other performances on the night when we come together in that ancient ritual of community and communion: good pizza!  The Café is open from 5-10pm and Open Mic begins at 7:30pm. $1 from every pizza benefits the ‘Orcas Island Food Bank’ during November. Orcas Ohana Note: If you’re looking to mix in with the locals for a strangely unforgettable experience, this is where we would go first.

"Oh I wish I had that Orcas Ohana gmap!"

A Useful Google Map of Orcas Island’s Interesting Sites and Resources

Interested in visiting a budget-friendly family vacation rental on Orcas Island? Of course! Our Orcas Ohana vacation rental overlooks East Sound and is conveniently located in the heart of all the good action Orcas Island has to offer.

Check out the map right here with all the local sites on the left tool bar and start planning some fun adventures and relaxing times today!

Here are some of our Orcas Island favorites,

courtesy of Orcas Ohana master of services Jason Miller:

Rosario Resort and Spa http://www.rosarioresort.com/

A beautiful vintage venue located on the Rosario Marina with a museum, spa, lodging and dining. If you are interested in having your wedding on Orcas Island then consider using our Orcas Ohana home and Rosario Resort as a double combo-attack for some splendiriferous lodging!

Inn at Ship Bay http://www.innatshipbay.com/

For some delicious dining action (Jason’s favorite) check out the Inn at Ship Bay within walking distance from Orcas Ohana! You can get some fresh seafood and locally grown vegetables at what is reputed to be the best place for dinner on the entire island. Plus, the waiters are supposedly ‘psychic’…..

The Orcas Island Saturday Farmer’s Market

This a fantastic place to get a good feel of the local energy and enthusiasm of Eastsound! Plus, you can get extra crazy and eat healthily while on vacation!

Mount Consitution: Orcas Ohana has a Mountain!

With a known success rate of 100%, this is the best proposal location in the entire Northwest! Take your beloved up to Lookout Tower and pop the big romantic question! And not just for engagements either, consider using this love haven for marriage renewals, that first time you say “I love you” or any other kind of open expression of your love!

Feel free to look into all the other adventure and relaxation sites you can find on this map and check out our Rates and Reservations page to start planning your stay on Orcas Island today! Also, if you have some great sites of your own that you think should be included, please don’t hesitate to comment below and we’ll be right on top of it!

Melinda Bargreen, music critic for Seattle Times,
writes for American Record Guide, Nov-Dec 2006

The white ferry glides to Orcas Island through an assortment of smaller tree-covered islands that look like someone scattered a fistful of giant emeralds onto northern Puget Sound. On such late-August days, the water is as calm as glass, though there’s plenty of bustle at the departing ferry terminal in Anacortes, about a 90-minute drive north of Seattle.

Orcas Island, one of four ferry-served islands in Washington State’s San Juan Islands, has been home for the past nine years to the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. A cozy boutique event run by founding Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann, it’s an outgrowth of some very serendipitous circumstances. Friedmann, a violist, met her husband, pianist Jon Kimura Parker, while performing at Toby Saks’s Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival (now in it 25 th year). The couple wanted to create a junior version of the Seattle festival up on Orcas Island, where Friedmann’s parents (violinist Martin Friedmann and oboist Laila Storch) had a vacation house. They knew the arts-friendly environment of the island, which nurtures many writers, musicians, and artists. And they knew the spectacular scenery, which led to the fledgling festival’s subtitle, “Chamber Music with a View”.

Best, there were some excellent venues: the small but acoustically lively Orcas Center, whose 213 seats are perennially full, and the sanctuary of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, which is perched on the rocks overlooking vistas of islands, water, and mountains.

With advice from Saks, Friedmann and a cadre of Orcas friends set forth to create a festival where the ambience is almost as great an attraction as the music. Having Parker, a Leeds Competition winner and international soloist, as the house pianist is a draw in itself; his faculty colleagues at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, including the likes of cellist Lynn Harrell, have proved a rich trove of talent from which to draw an artist lineup. More artists have come from Friedmann’s wide circle of friends at the Juilliard School and summer music camps, including trumpeter Stephen Burns and violinist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio.

From day one, innovation has been one of the festival’s hallmarks. Over the years, Friedmann has introduced the bandoneon, alphorn, cajon, organ, and sitar as well as more traditional chamber instruments and repertoire. Distinguished film director and photographer Otto Lang gave two seasons of inspired lecture –screenings before his death last January at 98. Composer and pianist Jake Heggie appeared with mezzo-soprano Zhen Cao in his own song cycles. Two San Francisco Ballet principal dancers, Muriel Maffre and Benjamin Pierce, have created two Stravinsky dance-music-video evenings (one of them this season) that would do credit to any festival on the planet. And the artist roster has included such icons as John Mack and Claude Frank alongside William Preucil, Jeffrey Kahane, and (in a nice quid pro quo) cellist and mentor Toby Saks. During the last two weeks of August this year, happy concertgoers pile in for the pre-concert lectures and lined up at the box office, where a wait list of substantial proportions usually formed. This is a festival that’s very good to it audiences; community donors underwrite a terrific little reception after each concert with big tables of catered hors d’oeuvres, fruits, cheese, and wines. (Donors, many of them individuals, also underwrite each performer, pre-concert lecture, and concert.) Rehearsals are open to the public; a youth-involvement program works with local school music programs through the school year and brings kids to the concerts. Children are admitted free to a Family Concert, which Parker hosted this year with horn player William VerMeulen, who performed on the garden hose and funnel, alongside excerpts from main stage programming.

The four main stage concerts, each presented twice, included a nod to Mozart in every program, with repertoire ranging from the standard to the startling. In the latter category was Michael Daugherty’s 1993 Dead Elvis, where “The King” ( Benjamin Kamins, very much alive) emerged from the wings clad in a white metal-studded jumpsuit and bearing a bassoon. Daugherty’s chamber piece is a tour-de-force for any bassoonist brave enough to handle its considerable technical challenges as well as hip-swiveling ones, and Kamins made it a personal triumph, losing no opportunity to kiss women in the audience and in the onstage chamber ensemble.

On the same program was an utterly fascinating version of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, created and choreographed by Muriel Maffre, whose concept included a nearly life-size puppet soldier cunningly manipulated by her and fellow dancer Benjamin Pierce. The seven-piece chamber ensemble (with Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio leading from the violinist’s chair) played with unanimous vigor and wit, and three narrators, Adam Stern, Owen Kotler, and John Clancy – gave voice to the major characters. The extraordinary pliancy of the dancing and the effective use of the puppet (underscoring the Soldier’s puppet-like manipulations by the Devil) were enhanced by Maffre’s video images on a small screen. It was both visually and musically mesmerizing, as fresh as new paint and as exciting as a newly minted classic.

When you realize that both Dead Elvis and L’Historie du Soldat shared the same program with Poulenc’s Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone, Mozart’s Flute Sonata No. 6, and Loeffler’s Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano, not to mention a little hors d’oeuvre in the form of Adam Stern’s new chamber transcription of Ginaster’s final dance from Estancia, you begin to understand the extraordinary creativity of this festival. Of course, there were more conventional programs. The final one, “Mozart Meets Tchaikovsky”, offered a sparking Mozart E-flat Piano Quartet with two married couples performing: Parker and Friedmann, and Lynn Harrell and his violinist wife Helen Nightengale. The second half was a supercharged Piano Trio by Tchaikovsky with Parker, Friedmann, and Harrell (Harrell, by the way, won a Grammy Award for his recording of this work).

An even smaller-scale program put Parker and Harrell together for some dream repertoire: Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 2, and Beethoven’s Seven Variations on The Magic Flute. Here were two top-flight players at their best in a duo recital of true partners, with cellist powerful enough to let pianist play at full strength in music that showed the deep commitment of both artists.

Afterward, as the blissful audience wafted into the reception room for treats and some of the festival’s reserve-label wine (bottled by Mount Baker vineyards), one audience member happily murmured, “We’re so spoiled.” Three words said it all.

(This article is from http://www.oicmf.org/ !)

Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Written by: Carol Bryant

Budget friendly. Family friendly. Fido friendly.

We’ve uncovered “don’t worry, be happy” at it’s finest. With first hand (er, paw) experience as visitors to this vacation home getaway, the Orcas Ohana is a must-see, must-do, for the couples, canines, and coastal enthusiasts.

Centrally located in the heart of Orcas Island, the Orcas Ohana (Hawaiian for “family”), offers an easy charm, ocean view, luxury meshed with contemporary, and access to a host of activities for the two-legged and four-legged variety.

Check out our ORCAS OHANA REVIEW and visit their website to discover THREE BIG REASONS people love vacationing in this beautiful Orcas Island rental home. While there, learn in-depth info about reservations, things to do, and their current photo contest. You could win a one-night stayover just by entering your pooch’s picture in their PHOTO CONTEST.

Twitter: @TheOrcasOhana and/or FACEBOOK ORCAS OHANA

When you vacation, how important is it that accommodations are Fido friendly? Tell us below.

(source: http://blog.fidofriendly.com/tails-from-the-road/orcas-ohana-fido-nirvana/)

Orcas Island | Eastsound, Washington

March & April Events:

WORKSHOP: TELLING A LIFE JOURNEY STORY @ ORCAS SR. CENTER

(Fridays, March 12 & 26; April 9 & 30, from 10 am – 3:30 pm)

In conjunction with the Orcas Historical Museum July event, “Journey Stories,” (in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution), Caroline Buchanan will lead a series of Friday work sessions to help you tell your journey story. We all have journey stories — How do you go about telling YOUR story? Buchanan will help you to decide – written, done as a journal, as a children’s book, a collage … Caroline will help you make it possible. Class limited to 10, $165.

REGISTER: Call Senior Center @ (360) 376-2667

INFORMATION: Contact Caroline @ 376-5509 or watercolors@rockisland.com

DALLAS BRASS BLOWS AWAY ORCAS CENTER

(Saturday, March 13, 7:30 pm. Burgers & Brew @ 5 pm – only $12)
Copland, Bernstein, Sousa, Gershwin, Berlin, Chicago, Dixieland, Swing, Broadway, folk, pop, hiphop. An American Musical Journey is an adventure for the whole family! The Dallas Brass is a nationally-recognized ensemble of traditional brass instruments and percussion, and their Orcas performance will feature several Orcas musicians. $25, $17 (Orcas Center members), $11 (students). Come in early for the ‘Burgers & Brew’!

INFORMATION: Call 376-2281 or visit www.orcascenter.org

SONGSHARE 2010 AT ORCAS CENTER

(Sunday, March 21, @ 3:00 pm)

SONGSHARE 2010: Join Orcas a Cappella for SongShare 2010: The Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, led by guest conductor Richard Marlow, with guest performance by Islands Sinfonia, Tickets are $11 and sold through the Orcas Center Box office and at the door.

INFORMATION: Email dawncleary@rockisland.com

(Source: http://orcasislandchamber.com/blast/)

Tranquility Awaits

This Orcas Island vacation home will take your breath away.

By Nicholas Sveslosky, Editor
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
(Continued from Mar/Apr 2010 Issue of FIDO Friendly)

A late night, one-hour ferry ride from Anacortes, WA, to Orcas Island sets the mood

for a romantic getaway. …

The Orcas Ohana welcomes human and canine guests with a peaceful and restful ambiance surpassed only by the quiet and beautiful views. Built in 2007, the craftsman-style home features three bedrooms, two baths and is both family and Fido-friendly. The Orcas Ohana sleeps up to eight people with the master bedroom overlooking the water; granite and marble countertops, cherry hardwood floors and heated travertine floors are in each bathroom.

A huge balcony is stretched above the peaceful bay, and guests can fi re up the barbie or simply relax and watch the deer go by. The backyard fire-pit offers the perfect setting for campfire stories and late night s’mores. Located on a hill above Eastsound and the bay, Orcas Ohana is just a three-minute walk to the ocean and a five-minute walk to the town of Eastsound, home to art galleries, shops, restaurants and a Farmers’ market. Comfortable, cozy and serene are just a few of the words to describe this beautiful island Getaway.

Owner Jason Miller along with his two Labs, Jazzy and Daisy, have thought of everything. Take a leisurely walk through the forest to the beach or pull up a bench next to a tree and breathe in the fresh air. Morning coffee goes better al fresco with your pooch by your side, and for the more industrious, there are mountain bike trails just waiting for an approach.

Whatever you have in mind during your vacation to Orcas Island, The Orcas Ohana will be your home-away-from-home for the duration of your stay. Ohana means “family” in Hawaiian, and we all know that pets are part of the family. So go, stay and play at the beautiful Orcas Ohana and bring Fido; your trip would just not be the same without him.

PET POLICY

The Orcas Ohana understands your pet is a part of your family and for that reason we welcome well-behaved dogs on property. All dogs must be ok’d by the property owner, Jason Miller, prior to your stay. Failure to provide this information prior to your stay will void your tenancy and security deposit. The Orcas Ohana provides a large pet crate, leash, yard tie-outs, dog brush, dog bed, and food/water bowls for your comfort. All other pet essentials are to be provided by the guest. Pets staying at The Orcas Ohana must not be left unattended or off-leash while on property. Barking and otherwise disruptive behavior is not acceptable. Guests are solely responsible for any injuries or disagreements due to pet behavior during your stay.  Guests are responsible for all damages created as a result of your stay and will be deducted from your security deposit.

————————————————————————————————————————

If You Go STAY

THE ORCAS OHANA

Room rate range: Seasonal $179+. Centrally located in the heart of Orcas Island. Close to Moran State Park, kayak and bicycle rentals, art galleries, restaurants, beaches, theatre, trails, boutique shops, coffee houses, bookstores, library, ice cream and gelato parlors, groceries, pubs and an organic Farmers’ Market. Basic pet amenities provided include: Water and food bowls, Large crate, Large dog bed, Doggy waste bags, 25-foot tie-out to roam the backyard, 6-foot leash for walks Doggy brush; Orcas Island, WA 98280; (818) 415-4098; www.theorcasohana.com.

DOG PARK

The island’s fenced-in dog park is well stocked with water, chuck-its, toys and poop shovels; www.orcasdogpark.org.

MT. CONSTITUTION

Moran State Park, Eastsound 98280; (360) 376-2326; www.sanjuanislands.kulshan.com/Washington/San+Juan+County/Orcas+Island/Eastsound/Outdoors/Mt.+Constitution.html

PAWKI’S

Located in Eastsound on 199 Main Street (next to the Outlook Inn); www.pawkis.com.

(source: http://www.fidofriendly.com/destinations/tranquility-awaits/)

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