Rosario to be Auctioned

Those of you who've read my books know that they're set in the San Juan Island, specificially Orcas Island. You'll also recognize that I have scenes at Rosario Resort. I've posted several times in this blog about Rosario.

On September 30, Rosario will be auctioned to the highest bidder. There has been talk that the mansion may end up as a private residence. Those of us lucky enough to visit the mansion and attend the organ/history concert by Christopher Peacock in the music room may never get to repeat that experience.

Then there are Rosario's 200 plus employees. As you can imagine, on an island like that, employment for 200 people isn't easy to come by. I hope the new buyer will continue to run it as a resort and make needed improvements to the property.

I'll be anxiously waiting to find out the purchaser. I'll give everyone an update as soon as I do.

San Juan Islands--Day 4 & 5

Sorry I didn't post the last day, but we left early on Wed. to catch the ferry.

Both "The Dance" and "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed" are set on a fictitious farm on Orcas Island that is in danger of being developed into a world-class resort. On Tuesday, Dennis and I drove to Deer Harbor on the other side of the island. I've always pictured Rosehill Farm to be somewhere in this area with a view similar to this:




Wednesday we left the beautiful San Juans behind us and passed another ferry on our way. The Washington State ferry system is one of the largest in the world and operated by the state of Washington, rather than a private company. There are many inhabitants of Washington who live on islands and depend on the ferry service, not just in the San Juans, but throughout Puget Sound.

I hope you've enjoyed a little look at the islands.

Rosario--Day 3

In 1904 at 47 years old, Robert Moran was told by his doctors that he had only a year to live. The stress of running his successful shipbuilding business and being the mayor of Seattle had taken their toll. Moran left his ship-building empire and retired to Cascade Bay on Orcas Island. He called his estate Rosario. He built a damn on Cascade Lake to produce hydroelectric power for his estate. Then he built a large mansion overlooking the water using his shipbuilding expertise, the Moran Mansion is built like a ship with a nautical theme throughout. The rich wood inside is teak and Honduras mahogany.

Over the years he donated several thousand acres comprising Mt. Constitution and Cascade Lake and donated them to Washington State Parks. On the grounds of Rosario, he had extensive gardens including this figure-eight pond in which family and guests could float in small boats.

In my book, “The Dance,” I talk quite a bit about the magic of Orcas Island. Robert Moran lived to be 86 on Orcas Island, 40 more years than his Seattle doctors gave him.

His estate is now Rosario Resort. The mansion contains dining facilities and a museum, in which you can see many of the original rooms decorated with period furniture and historical information.

By the way, I mentioned that we moved to another room. Here is our new view. You can see why we moved.

San Juan Islands--Day 2

Monday Morning


Even though the weather report said rain all day, it barely rained at all. There were even periods of sunshine.

We spent a lazy day, having lunch and dinner in the lounge and walking about the grounds. We also moved to another room. This was a much nicer room with a beautiful view of the San Jauns, but I was unable to get onto the Internet wireless anymore once we moved. So I’m sending this from the Moran Mansion lobby.

This is the Moran Lounge:

As we were returning from dinner, the sun came out and the skies were blue. I knew my window of opportunity had just arrived. I grabbed Dennis, much to his annoyance as he’d settled in for nap, and insisted that we drive to the top of Mt. Constitution. Mt. Constitution is the tallest point in the islands. You can see a 360-degree panorama of the surrounding islands and mainland. I’d never been up there, but I’d heard it was not to be missed. It was well worth the trip, as you can see below. Unfortunately it was a little hazy so none of the pictures came out very well, but you can see enough to know how beautiful it was.

Here are some views from Mt. Constitution of the islands.

I wanted to stay up there for the sunset, but it was blowing like crazy and about 34 degrees. No joke. Brrrrrr...

I hope you’re enjoying my journal of our trip.

The Last-MInute Adventure

Recently, my husband and I talked about a little trip for our anniversary, which is next month. Of course, I wanted to go to my favorite place and the setting for two of my books, Washington's San Juan Islands. Thursday, I started checking reservation information and realized if we went to the San Juans before April 1, we could get great deals on rooms. So at the last minute, we booked a room at Rosario Resort on Orcas Island.

So it's off we go this morning, for a 3-hour drive on I-5 and a pleasant 1-hour ride on the ferry.

If I can get Internet access, I'll post some pictures and some stories of our last-minute getaway.

I'm going to bring back some great "island" items for my promo contests when my first San Juan book comes out, "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed" followed by "The Dance," both set on Orcas Island.

I hope you'll join me--

because everyone deserves a little island time.