Here is a sample FAQ from their website: OrcasMopeds.com

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/ !)

Check out this sweet video of The Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (kid version)!

Orcas Island has so many great activities for families!

Top 10 dog-friendly escapes
You can take your best pal with you on these great getaways around the West

1. Cannon Beach, OR

The instant I unhook Murphy’s leash, his eyes go wide, seemingly asking, “For real?” Leonbergers are natural prancers, but when he hears the magical words “Yep, it’s okay,” my dog’s jaw drops and his head whips around ― being let loose on a sugar-sand beach 200 yards wide and more than 3 miles long seems to momentarily blow his mind.

Murphy is the perfect pup to test the dog-friendliness of Cannon Beach, Oregon. It’s easy for a hotel, shop, or outdoor cafe to accommodate pocket pooches and handbag hounds, but welcoming a breed that’s a cross between a grizzly bear and a bouncy, pouncy Tigger ― a dog that stretches 6 feet from nose to tail ― takes genuine commitment to pets and their people.

That’s what Murphy has found in Cannon Beach, an enchanting little cedar-shaked town with 14 pet-friendly hotels and 11 eateries where doggies can do dinner at outdoor tables. At the beachfront Surfsand Resort (from $209, plus $15 per night pet fee; 800/547-6100), Murphy is given a beach towel, bowl, and basket of treats.

Dogs are invited to curl up under tables on the deck at the Lumberyard Rotisserie and Grill ($$; 264 Third St.; 503/436-0285). But poor Murphy does not get a doggie bag: The baby back ribs in sweet Pepsi barbecue sauce are that good.

The next day, my wife, Sandi, and I take Murphy to hit the shops, many of which allow him to browse. In particular, he recommends Puppy Love by the Sea (271 N. Hemlock St., Ste. 1; 503/436-9800), a dog-toy and -accessory store, where Murphy shops for a raincoat ― alas, nothing in his size.

The town’s star attraction, though, no matter how many legs you have, is one of the world’s greatest walking beaches (ci.cannon-beach.or.us or 503/436-8050), which allows dogs to go leash-less as long as they’re under voice control.

For Murphy, this is a tail-wagging turn of events: A tempting gaggle of gulls loiters at the water’s edge, eminently sniffable driftwood lies scattered near the bluffs, and a dozen or so other four-leggers are spread out, playing with balls, Frisbees, and each other.

What’s a dog to do? His only solution is to start running circles around us, which causes Sandi to break out laughing, which makes Murphy hop, twirl, and paw at the sand until we’re all laughing and chasing each other down the beach. –Bob Friel

2. Denver

Chill out with a downtown walkabout. Start at Confluence Park (15th St. at Little Raven St.; denvergov.org) along the irresistibly splashy Platte River, the perfect place to dip hot paws. Then stroll to Dog Savvy (1402 Larimer St.; 303/623-5200), a spoil-your-pet boutique. Bone tired? At the happy-tails hour at Hotel Monaco (from $189; no pet fee; 800/900-1303), sip wine with a pup at your feet, thanks to a pets-welcome policy. –Elisa Bosley

3. Coronado, CA

Your dog can ride the waves at the Su-Ruff Camp hosted by Loews Coronado Bay Resort (800/815-6397), 20 minutes south of San Diego. For $349, get a deluxe room, doggie board shorts or bandana, “surf & turf” room service for Fido, and a dog surfing lesson with instructors from Coronado Surfing Academy. Not a hotel guest? Lessons for dogs are available by the hour ($40; 619/293-3883). –Maryann Hammers

4. Los Angeles

For dogs that like to hobnob with the rich and famous, Laurel Canyon Park (8260 Mulholland Dr., Studio City) is 3 tree-lined acres in the Santa Monica Mountains where pedigreed boxers and poodles mingle off-leash with equally well-groomed owners: Orlando Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Reese Witherspoon have been spotted here. The elegant Sunset Tower Hotel (from $325, plus $100 pet fee; 800/225-2637) remains the place to see and be seen ― that includes A-list pooches.
–Alison Singh Gee and Jennie Nunn

5. Orcas Island, WA

After hiking Turtleback Mountain Preserve, swimming the cool waters of North Beach (end of North Beach Rd.), and romping in Eastsound’s off-leash dog park (Mt. Baker Rd. at North Beach Rd.; orcasdogpark.org), your pup will hope every car ride leads to the island ferry (from $39; dogs ride free; wsdot.wa.gov). West Beach Resort (from $99, plus $18 per night pet fee; 877/937-8224) offers cabins on a ½-mile dog- and family-friendly beach. –B.F.

6. Near Tucson

Give your dog a break from the heat: Head to the oak-shaded trails of Madera Canyon ($5 per vehicle), 40 miles south of Tucson. From your deck at Santa Rita Lodge (from $95, plus $25 per night pet fee; 520/625-8746), you and Sparky can watch for the canyon’s 200 species of birds at dusk. In the morning, dog in tow, stroll the 1.8-mile round-trip Bog Springs Trail; it’s wildflower-flush during late summer’s monsoon season.
–Tim Vanderpool

7. Carmel, CA

Welcome to Monterey Bay’s pooch paradise. This tree-shaded village has dog-loving hotels ― the Cypress Inn (from $205, plus $30 per night pet fee; 800/944-7443) is most famous ― and restaurants: We like Casanova ($$$$; Fifth Ave. at Mission St.; 831/625-0501) and the Forge in the Forest ($$$; Fifth Ave. at Junipero Ave.; 831/624-2233). The shopping center Carmel Plaza has a dogs-only watering spot, the Fountain of Woof (Ocean Ave. at Mission St.; 831/624-1385). And at Carmel City Beach (end of Ocean Ave.), dogs can legally gambol off-leash. –Peter Fish

8. Santa Barbara

A private rock-rimmed wading pool. Camp Run-a-Muk day camp. It’s all at the Hearst Castle of kennels, Camp Canine (from $45 per day, $60 per night; 805/962-4790). While you’re out enjoying Santa Barbara’s pleasures ― like Old Spanish Days (Aug 5–9, 2009) ― rest assured your dog is having a good time too. Maybe a better time. Added bonus: Camp Canine is walking distance from the world’s best taco joint, La Super-Rica Taqueria ($; 622 N. Milpas St.; 805/963-4940). –P.F.

9. Petaluma, CA

Fish gotta swim, and shepherds want to herd. Only problem is that you don’t own sheep, which is why Spot’s best vacation ever will be at Dairydell Canine (open Mon–Fri; reservations required; $50 per hour; 707/762-6111). Seasoned sheepdog handler Frank Souza can coax even city shepherds into focused farm dogs ― at least for a few minutes. Afterward, lunch at cafe-bakery Della Fattoria ($; closed Mon; 141 Petaluma Blvd. N.; 707/763-0161). Try the open-face white bean and tuna sandwich; your dog will pass on lunch ― she’ll be sleeping under the table, dreaming of sheep. –Elizabeth Jardina

10. Walla Walla, WA

At funky, dog-friendly Dunham Cellars, two wines are named for dogs: The “Three Legged Red” ($19) is a meaty red blend; the “Four Legged White” ($14) is a lush, balanced Riesling ($5 tasting fee; 150 E. Boeing Ave.; 509/529-4685). Later, crash comfortably at downtown’s Marcus Whitman Hotel (from $129, plus $20 per night pet fee; 866/826-9422). –Sara Schneider”

(Source: http://www.sunset.com/travel/outdoor-adventure/dog-friendly-vacations-00400000050311)