Martha's Vineyard May be Obama Vacation Spot
As the first family did not have a vacation home before moving into the White House, aides have been trying to quietly search for a place where the Obamas can spend their time away from Washington.
"Unlike FDR, who had Hyde Park, or Lyndon Johnson or George W. Bush who had their own ranches, they need to find a place where they can relax, which the others did by going to their own homes," author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told Politico.
However, the rumor mill is in full flow despite the White House's attempt to keep the Obama vacation plans confidential. The New York Daily News reports that the Wesley House in Oak Bluffs has already secured rooms for Secret Service agents while the list of possible residences for the Obamas has been narrowed down to three.
Although Martha's Vineyard is well known for housing presidents, Pia Catton of Politico says that the decision may come with consequences. The Massachusetts hot spot is known as "the playground of the rich," and the Obama's trip may be seen as counterintuitive to many Americans forced to resort to low-cost vacations due to the recession, Catton asserts.
However, the island also has a reputation of being family-friendly and laid back. With the needs of Sasha and Malia Obama, the vacation spot could take on an entirely new connotation.
"It would be far worse to go to Nantucket," 'The Official Filthy Rich Handbook' author Christopher Tennant told Politico. "Nantucket is more New York, more jet set, more Hamptons. Martha's Vineyard is more the Massachusetts vacation. You take a ferry out there. There are more day trippers and families."
Although the White House has not officially released any details of the Obama's trip, nor confirmed that Martha's Vineyard is in fact the official destination, the New York Times reports that the president will not spend more than a week on vacation while First Lady Michelle Obama and Sasha and Malia will stay longer.