[DavidShreder]

I think we'd all like to be able to take 7 vacations in a year-and-a-half on the job. Sweeeet. We are well on our way to becoming like Europe.

First Dog "Bo" even got to fly in on a separate jet with some Obama staffers. This is great.

Michelle Obama called on Americans to vacation in The Gulf...then boarded a plane for Maine.

What oil spill, wars, economic collapse (on purpose)? A president has to unwind once in a while when he's ruining...er...running the country.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/16/obama.vacation/

Obama vacation brings rest, relaxation and rebuke

By Kristi Keck, CNN July 17, 2010 6:50 p.m. EDT

Obama and family unwind in Maine

(CNN) -- President Obama and his family arrived Friday for a weekend getaway in Maine, but along with a little rest and relaxation comes criticism that the president is taking it easy with the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis in a critical phase.

The Obamas plan to spend the weekend on Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park. The trip marks the president's third weekend vacation since the oil disaster began in April.

The Republican National Committee launched a website blasting what it considers Obama's "leisure activities or missteps" during the oil disaster, like playing golf, attending concerts and vacationing in Asheville, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; and now Maine.

Obama has also faced criticism for scheduling a trip up north, instead of vacationing in the Gulf, as he advised other Americans to do.

"Presidents are certainly entitled to vacation, just like everybody else, but there is a fine line as to when presidents should do it, what they should and where they should do it," said Brad Blakeman, a former member of President George W. Bush's senior staff and the deputy assistant for appointments and scheduling.

"Presidents have to be cognizant of the fact that everything they do is going to be scrutinized," said Blakeman, who also is a professor for Georgetown University's Semester in Washington program.

Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said the Republican criticism is "galling," considering Bush's frequent trips to Camp David and his home in Crawford, Texas.

"Barack Obama is working as hard as any president that we've had in recent history and certainly harder than the most immediate previous president," he said.

[QHdy5Z3A]

Little clarification on First Dog "Bo":

Clarification: Today's story about the arrival of the Obamas said the Obama's dog and one aide arrived on a small jet before the First Family, but there were other occupants on the plane, including several other staffers. The presidential party took two small jets to the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton because the airport was too small to accommodate the president's usual jet. July 17

White House wanderers tour Acadia

By Rebekah Metzler
Staff Writer, State House Bureau


BAR HARBOR -- Julia Freifeld, of Raleigh, N.C., was absolutely certain she knew where the Obamas would make a stop during their weekend getaway on Mount Desert Island.

She staked out Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium on Main Street in Bar Harbor.

"They are going to bring their daughters here," she said Friday afternoon.

Walking down the streets of the popular tourist town, everyone knew where the president, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, would be going -- or thought they did, anyway.

As it turns out, the first family was just down the street, having ice cream at Mount Desert Ice Cream, according to the White House pool report.

Freifeld, her husband, Mark, and his brother, Richard, were staying on the island through the weekend, the couple's second trip to Maine.

[pobrierce]

Just another day in Paradise. Just because the Obama's dine on expensive lobster and shrimp doesn't mean they're out of touch with average Americans. They're not elitists. Don't jump to conclusions.

Notice how this article reads like something out of a vacation planner.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/...acation-i.html

Obamas enjoy family vacation in the great outdoors

By Felicia Sonmez

BAR HARBOR, Maine -- President Obama and his family aren't just getting outside the Beltway on their brief vacation here -- they're getting outside, period.

Since their arrival Friday afternoon, the Obamas have been biking, hiking and boating their way around Mount Desert Island, the third-largest island on the Eastern Seaboard and home to the 47,000-acre Acadia National Park.

The first stop Friday was a 90-minute bike ride on the lushly wooded trails around Witch Hole Pond at the northern end of the island. Then came a family hike on Cadillac Mountain, at 1,530 feet the highest peak on the East Coast, followed by an ice cream stop in downtown Bar Harbor, where the president took a momentary break from his coconut ice cream cone to pose for a few pictures with onlookers.

The Obamas rounded out their first day with a National Park Service boat ride on Frenchman Bay and a waterfront dinner at Stewman's Lobster Pound. Even dinner was outdoors: The first family, who arrived at the restaurant via boat, sat at a table on a pier overlooking the bay. (The president and the first lady dined on lobster, while their daughters shared a shrimp basket, according to restaurant manager Jeff Buffington, who also noted that Obama "shook hands with everybody" and was "very friendly" to the surprised diners on the pier.)

On Saturday, the Obamas kept up their busy pace with a morning of tennis at the Bar Harbor Club, an elegant compound constructed by J.P. Morgan in 1929. In the afternoon, they traveled to Southwest Harbor, where they grabbed lunch at the waterfront Claremont Hotel before taking in the sights at the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse, which sits atop a rocky precipice on the southern tip of the island.

First do Bo, who came along for the weekend getaway, watched from below as the first family climbed to the top of the lighthouse, but he joined in at the next stop, an afternoon hike along the rocky Ship Harbor trail. The Obamas hiked for about an hour, taking breaks to skip rocks along the water, play with Bo and chat with other families, according to Katie McCormick-Lelyveld, the first lady's press secretary.

The vacation follows one the first family took last summer to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park, where whitewater rafting and peach-picking were among the activities they enjoyed in the great outdoors.

Unlike that trip -- as well as the Obamas' other recent vacations to Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii and a brief Memorial Day trip to Chicago -- the first family's latest getaway has been relatively free of interruption.

Perhaps the only reminder this weekend of the political pressures facing Obama came Saturday afternoon, when a handful of anti-war protesters gathered at the downtown Village Green.

Patty Ryan, 64, a retired land conservation specialist and one of the protest's organizers, said the group had been holding anti-war protests every Sunday, rain or shine, beginning the week after Sept. 11, 2001, but ending on the day Obama was elected, "to give him a chance."

Asked whether Saturday's event meant that the protests will resume, Ryan said the group will "probably have a discussion about that."

"It's a big commitment," she said, adding: "We live in paradise."

[lakraboob]

You can't really expect the King and Queen or the princesses to take care of the doggie when you can just hire a servant at taxpayer expense to the tune of 100K plus benefits to do the job. Perhaps the President can extend this benefit to the rest of the country and supply all of us with a 100K a year dog caretaker at taxpayer expense. It sure would help the Unemployment problem?