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.

Stepping back to Medieval ages at Cloisters

A visit to the remarkable Cloisters museum in upper Manhattan transported Julie, Dan and Christine to 12th-15th Century Europe on Sunday.

They followed the tour through the building chronologically, seeing artwork and architecture from the Romanesque through the Late Gothic periods.

The Unicorn Tapestries are perhaps the best-known objects at the Cloisters, but there are many other beautiful works, and the museum (a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) does a great job of presenting them in historical context.

It was a return visit for Dan and Julie, who went to the Cloisters on one of their early dates when Julie was in a graduate program at nearby Columbia University.

The day was gloomy and rainy, but that just seemed to add to the atmosphere. It also made for an interesting view from the grounds across the Hudson River.

Have a look at the beautiful stained glass, tapestries and other artwork in Dan's photo album:

Visiting Oz, Times Square and Mr. Morgan's library

Julie and Dan celebrated their anniversary with a weekend in Manhattan on July 7-8.

Saturday evening they dined on Restaurant Row, saw "Wicked" at the Gershwin Theater, strolled through Times Square and then had a drink in the Marriott Marquis lounge overlooking the square - just in time to watch a thunderstorm from behind the glass.

On Sunday they were in the mood for a short visit to an uncrowded museum, and discovered the Morgan Library & Museum at Madison Avenue and 36th Street. The museum incorporates the library built to hold J. P. Morgan's vast collection of books, artworks and antiquities, along with two adjacent Morgan family houses.

This is J. Pierpont Morgan's study, a cozy room with a fireplace, red silk wall coverings and rare books and Renaissance artworks. Here Julie reads descriptions of some of the objects on the wall behind J.P.'s desk.

This is the East Room, or main library. The size of the collection of books is incredible, as is the age of many of the volumes. One wall is dominated by this tapestry.

"The sixteenth-century Netherlandish tapestry over the mantelpiece depicts avarice, one of the seven deadly sins, personified by the mythological King Midas." - Morgan Library & Museum

The library holds three Gutenberg Bibles, printed in 1455, and has one on display at all times.


There are many other books dated as far back as the 1500s, although many of those appear to have been re-bound. They include scores of other Bibles and religious texts as well as works of literature.

Summer college of musical knowledge (Updated with new photos)

Andy is in the midst of a two-week Syracuse University Summer College program. Here he is in front of the Hall of Languages with his SU-grad mom, Julie.

He's in the "Recording Studio Techniques and Practice" program, a hands-on course in the fundamentals of audio production. The classes are held in the recording studios in the university's Schaffer Art Building.

Andy's sister, Christine, took an art course at SU's summer college two years ago. She enjoyed the college experience and the course helped her build her portfolio.

The early word from Andy is that he's finding it very enjoyable and worthwhile as well.

Here are a couple of photos posted on the program's Facebook page that show Andy at work during the second week: On the electronic drum set...


...and at the control panel.
 

Happy Fourth! Independence Day 2012

Travel report: A visit to Music City

Cathy writes:

Last week I traveled to Nashville, Tenn. for a mini-vacation with some friends. We packed in a lot of sightseeing, eating and a concert.  

My companions included ladies from West Virginia, Indiana and Minnesota. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had a delicious dinner at Demo’s Restaurant downtown. From there we went to The Stage, one of Nashville’s many honky-tonks on Broadway, to see a new artist, Matt Mason, perform. Having spent much of the day traveling, we all called it a night after his show.

First thing Thursday, we took some time to walk up and down the streets of Music Row. This is the area of town where all the recording studios and music labels are located. Even though breakfast was included at our hotel, we wanted to experience a Nashville tradition, so we had a late breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. It was worth waiting in line outside the restaurant.

After that, we spent a few hours in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The current special exhibits include memorabilia from Chet Atkins and all of Taylor Swift’s costumes from her 2011 "Speak Now” world tour. The Hall is also home to plaques commemorating every artist that has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame over the years.

Next we visited the Ryman Auditorium. After a brief video of the Ryman’s history a couple of us got our picture taken on the stage as a souvenir. We were then free to explore the exhibits -- but we saw that Opry member Vince Gill was in the balcony being interviewed on camera. Naturally, we snuck up to get a closer look, and once he was done, a few of us were able to get his autograph.

Click above to see Cathy's photos. Click below to read the rest of her report.

Art, dance and shifting into summer on Cape Cod

"Waiting and Watching," acrylic on canvas

"Waiting and Watching" by Tish received an award at the opening reception of the Cape Code Art Association's exhibit, "Points of View: Artists' Interpretations of Photography." The exhibit runs through July 9 at the association's gallery in Barnstable.

Tish also is one of the artists in a group that will be exhibiting every Monday this summer on the Village Green in Dennis.

During May, Tish took a break from painting to prepare costumes for a spring ballet show by the Academy of Performing Arts, where daughter Lizzie is a dancer.

The show was called "Ballet, Broadway and Beyond" and played to a sold-out house on May 20.

"Ballet, Broadway and Beyond" cast backstage.

Assistant teaching at Academy of Performing Arts

Tish writes: "Lizzie has had a busy end of the dance and school year with finals, SAT's, performances, a photoshoot at the beach, and assistant teaching the little dancers. She is now officially a senior at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School, as school ended on June 22nd.

"She will have a full summer trying to fit in a little beach time between scooping ice cream, ballet classes, assistant-teaching ballet, volunteering in the Early Childhood Program that is located at her high school and writing college essays."

Father's Day at the ballgame

Hugh and Dolores spent Father's Day weekend visiting daughter Julie and her family in New Jersey.

On Sunday, they took in a Somerset Patriots baseball game. It was great day for a ballgame, with partly-cloudy skies and mild temperatures.

The game was tied 2-2 from the third inning until the ninth. Then the Patriots capped the day with a line drive hit that scored a runner from second. That gave the home team a 3-2 victory and sent the crowd home happy.

Share your Father's Day story. Keep in touch!

Julie and 250,000 other Girl Scouts fill DC Mall

Julie traveled to Washington on Saturday to take part in the Girl Scouts of America's 100th Anniversary Sing-Along on the National Mall.

Thousands of Scouts, leaders, family members and friends gathered to sing camp songs, listen to musical entertainers and celebrate their pride in Girl Scouting. Organizers estimated the crowd at 250,000.

Washington Post photo. More photos here. Story here.

Julie made the trip on a bus with Scouts and leaders from Scotch Plains and Fanwood, where she continues to volunteer although her own troop has graduated. The day was very sunny and hot, and after a while she and her leader-friends found a spot to rest in the shade.

Others cooled off in the spray from fire trucks that were brought in to provide "cooling stations."

CNN photo

Click the logo below to visit the event page, featuring more photos.