"Sonnets in the Sand" Logistics

INFO FOR SONNETEERS
SONNETS IN THE SAND begins Wednesday 9 May. We'll use the message board in the day-use parking lot at Kalaloch Campground to communicate. Check there when you arrive. We'll post the Camp Shakespeare site # to help you find your way to main camp and daily messages about where we are on the beach and how the scribing is going. If you have messages for us, post them there, attention "Camp Shakespeare." Camp Shakespeare will maintain a continuous camp for 1-2 weeks beginning Wednesday 9 May. All are welcome to join the nightly bonfires.

DRIVING TO KALALOCH

Kalaloch Beach is 170 miles from Seattle, a 3.5-hour drive. From Interstate 5, take Exit 104 at Olympia and head west to Aberdeen-Hoquiam. From Hoquiam, go north on U.S. 101. The beach is between the Hoh and Quinault Indian reservations.

CARPOOLING

I'll be making 3 roundtrips from Seattle to Kalaloch to transport scribes. I have room for 1-3 riders on each trip. Call me (Mimi cell # 617-460-6110) if you want a ride. Trips will run as follows, with morning departures from Seattle and evening arrivals back to Seattle:

1) Weds 9 May - Friday 11 May

2) Saturday 12 May - Sunday 13 May

3) Monday 14 May - Weds 16 or Thurs 17 May

CAMPING

There are over 100 sites at Kalaloch Campground. All sites are close to the beach and relatively close to one another. If we want to, but can't all be together, we can take adjacent sites. There are picnic tables, fire pits and bathrooms with running water at Kalaloch, but no showers. Kalaloch Lodge, a mile south on 101, runs a general store and a restaurant. The Olympic Coast is full of wind and weather. Bring a warm hat, a rain jacket, layers (especially non-cotton) and two warm shoes. We'll have camp stoves for making tea and coffee so bring your mug.


SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

Want to get familiar with the sonnets before you arrive? Peruse Shakespeare's Sonnets here. No need to print unless you want to. I will have print-outs on paper.

TIDES 

Sonneteers will need to know about and work with the ocean tides. You can view a tide chart here and/or pick up a tide table at the nearby ranger station. Following the tides is our first and simplest connect, our way of being here, present, in tune with the land. At low tide we'll have our biggest palette. Anything above the high tide line won't get swept away, so we'll need to stay between the two. Wake up Shakespeare. Put him to bed.

STARGAZING

Venus will dominate the evening sky, reaching maximum brilliance at the start of the month. It'll be high in the West and set 3.5 hours after the Sun. By mid-month it will set 2.5 hours after the Sun and, at month's end, 40 mins after the Sun. Mars is fading but still high in the evening sky. It's the bright reddish “star” nearly overhead early in the evening. Mars will spend the month moving eastwards below the constellation of Leo. Saturn is easy to see in the eastern evening sky. This month it can be seen in the east at the start of evening making a nice but distant pair with bright 1st magnitude Spica. There will be a solar eclipse on 20 May for those who wish to stay on and wander on the peninsula. It will be a spectacular annular (ring of fire) solar eclipse, a big deal and something that won't happen again for 18 years.