George Washington slept here - first!

During his late-summer break from work, Dan paid a quick visit this week to Marie, Brian and Xander in Virginia. On Tuesday, father, daughter and grandson checked out the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, the site where the first president was born in 1732.

Marie and Junior Ranger Xander at Washington's Birthplace

The site is operated by the National Park Service and participates in the NPS Junior Ranger program, which offers kids the opportunity to earn badges by learning about National Parks. Xander promptly enlisted.

George was born on the Washington family plantation, on Pope's Creek just off the Potomac River in what is now Westmoreland County. He was three when he moved with his parents to Ferry Farm near Fredricksburg. The house where he was born was destroyed by fire in 1779.

In the 1920s, a private association was formed to rebuild the house and turn the property into an educational historic site, which was then turned over to the National Park Service. The house and various outbuildings are not really replicas of the originals, since no drawings or plans could be found, but are appropriate to the mid-18th Century and filled with period furnishings and artifacts.

One building is set up as the farm's workshop, including a blacksmith's forge.

At the blacksmith's workshop

It's a busy time for Xander: He and his mom just got back from a visit to Marie's mother in California; next week, he'll start kindergarten; and on Monday, he had his first baby tooth fall out and his first visit from the tooth fairy.

Coast-to-coast move for Genevieve & John

Embarking on new adventures, John and Genevieve are changing jobs and relocating from California to New York.

The couple have lived in Mountain View, Calif., since their marriage in November 2009. John, who has been working for Facebook since January 2008, is jumping to a software start-up called Addepar. He will establish and be the "tech lead" for the California-based company's new Manhattan office.

Genevieve is becoming assistant manager of foundation and government grants for the New York Public Library system. She'll be part of a seven-person staff that secures funding for the library's programs from private foundations and public agencies.

Genevieve's new job starts Monday (Aug. 27), so she'll be staying at her parents' home for the time being. While in California, Genevieve worked for educational publisher Cengage and as a grant writer for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

John will join Addepar on Sept. 10. He'll work at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., for the first couple of months, becoming familiar with the firm's products and procedures, before opening its New York engineering office and hiring a staff.

Addepar builds software for financial managers - firms that oversee investments for institutions or individuals - to help them track and analyze investments over multiple accounts. Its web site says its "new generation of technology" is designed to "help wealth managers minimize risk, fight fraud, and drive performance."

Renowned artist exhibits in Rehoboth

The Wiberg Gallery in Rehoboth Beach is currently featuring works by Dolores. Above, she stands with gallery owner Jack Wiberg at the show's opening earlier this month.

"I have been a member of the gallery for just over a year," Dolores writes. Her works will be featured for about two months, and then move back to one of the other spaces in the gallery.

Also this month, Dolores exhibited at the Rehoboth Art League's annual Outdoor Show. She's a long-time participant in the show and its former chairperson.

Visit Dolores' web site to see more of her work.

Kevin's Choice: He moves to a new job

Kevin has joined Choice Logistics, a global supply-chain management firm headquartered in New York.

"After four years at Smartsource LLC, it was time to move to a new position," Kevin writes. "On Aug. 6, I began working as Billing Administration Manager for Choice Logistics in their corporate office in Downtown Manhattan." The office is about a block from Battery Park.

"Choice Logistics provides time-critical delivery of high-end technical parts from its network of over 400 warehouse locations worldwide, servicing major companies such as Dell, Hitachi, and Pitney Bowes. In my new position, I will be managing five billing analysts responsible for over 100,000 transactions per month.

"The first two weeks have been an in-depth orientation, meeting with the senior VP's of the company and learning the department's policies and procedures. I am looking forward to finishing the training process and getting involved in the day-to-day operations."

Dolores writes about Austen-inspired fiction

Dolores recently wrote an article about the proliferation of books that invent new stories using the characters of Jane Austen's novels.

"There now are countless books by contemporary authors who happily use Jane's characters, locations and situations, over and over. They expand on the plots, develop minor characters and continue stories beyond Jane's endings."

The article ran in the August issue of "Our Village Voice," the resident-produced newspaper of Oak Crest Village. Click here to see a scan of the article. (It's broken in pieces to fit the scanner, but just scroll down from one piece to the next.)

The birds and the beaches on Long Island

Here, chickadees!

On a weekend visit to Noyac, Dan, Julie, Andy, Christine and her boyfriend Matt took to the nature trails on Jessup's Neck. As in past years, they brought along sunflower seeds to feed the chickadees -- and so did quite a few other visitors on this summer Sunday. At one point four groups converged at one spot, making for the amusing photo above.

Dan says: Feeding the chickadees has become one of our favorite activities when we get out to Noyac. Over the years it seems some of the other critters also have been getting bolder about taking snacks from humans. A couple of years ago, Patrick had a cardinal land on his hand for some seeds.

Chipmunks, too, will sometimes come for a handout. This one didn't just grab and run. It filled its cheeks with seeds, as chipmunks do, before scampering away.

We also got in some relaxing time at the "back beach" on Pine Neck...


...and a late-day visit to the ocean at Bridgehampton. It was a too-brief but enjoyable visit.

Getting ready for marching band season

Chris and the other members of the Hilliard Darby High School Band spent the week of Aug. 5-10 at band camp. It was held at a conference center in Marengo, Ohio, about 40 miles from Hilliard.

Upon their return, they put on a performance for family and friends at the high school gym. Chris' mom, Cathy, has added several videos to our Birch Street collection. In the clip below, the band plays the school's fight song.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Also check out the band's impressive entrance and the rest of the videos.

"It won't be long before they're marching on the field every Friday night," Cathy writes. In fact, the school's first football game of the season is at its home field on Friday, Aug. 24.

More summer studies for Andy

In a 1912 Elizabethan-style building used as a Yale University dormitory, Andy spent two weeks this summer learning the basics of writing computer programs in C++ and Java.

The iD Programming Academy course was offered by the same outfit that runs the iD Tech Camp and iD Gaming Academy programs that Andy enjoyed in past summers. This was a more advanced course, and Andy said he learned a lot from it.

Dan, Julie and Christine all made the trip to New Haven to drop Andy off, and then visited Christine's freshman-year RIT roommate and her parents at their home in nearby Bethany, Conn.

When Julie drove up to bring Andy home, she took the opportunity to stop by New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery and visit the grave of a distant relative -- lexicographer and author Noah Webster.