How they spent their summer vacation

[Geee]

Chicago Tribune:


WASHINGTON — — Malia and Sasha Obama have enjoyed a summer that most American children can only dream of, but the first daughters are about to join millions of kids in an annual ritual: back to school.

Granted, most students' families don't pay the kind of tuition required at Sidwell Friends School — $32,069 for seventh-grader Malia and $31,069 for fourth-grader Sasha. But the Quaker day school commands that kind of money with a reputation for academic excellence.

When Sidwell sends its students away for the summer, it provides them with reading lists. The list for Malia and classmates includes a book called "Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out."

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But even Sidwell regards the summer break as a "time for students to relax and enjoy time with family and friends," said Ellis Turner, the associate head of school at Sidwell, who sidestepped questions about the first daughters specifically.

Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, return to classes Tuesday after a sun-soaked summer of fun spent at the White House and on vacations stretching from Maine to California, with a couple foreign trips in the mix.

Their second summer in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had them around town at recitals, sleepovers and sporting events. Both study piano; Malia also plays the flute. The eldest girl favors soccer and the youngest, basketball.

One summer high point occurred when one of their favorite performing groups, the Jonas Brothers, sang at the White House in June at a tribute to Paul McCartney. Other memories came while on the road.

Family travel included trips to Chicago in May; Bar Harbor, Maine, in July; and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., in August. One of the foreign trips was so low-key, practically nobody noticed; the other was splashed in headlines.

Michelle Obama, with the girls and her mother, Marian Robinson, hit Los Angeles in June, dining at trendy eateries and watching the Lakers and Celtics battle in the NBA Finals. Later in June — with little fanfare and press attention — Robinson and the girls visited the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

Malia Obama, now 5 feet, 9 inches, not only got taller and new braces, she got away. That's when she and girlfriends slipped off to a girls summer camp in New Hampshire for a month.

That left the first lady and Sasha — "sassy," her mom has called her — and friends to set off for Spain's Costa del Sol, with a dip in the Mediterranean and foray to the island of Mallorca for lunch with Spain's king and queen.

The Spanish trip, which drew heavy press coverage, occurred in August while Dad spent his 49th birthday with friends back in Chicago. Next he, his wife and Sasha made an overnight visit to Florida's Gulf Coast. One highlight: Sasha sank a hole-in-one in mini-golf.

At summer's twilight the four Obamas and several friends unwound on the Vineyard, picnicking on the beach and tooling around on bikes.

It's now known that the Chicago weekend, which kicked off summer, was not only about kicking back. It was about chowing down. The normally diet-conscious Michelle Obama, in an interview with Ladies Home Journal, remembered devouring the tastes of Chicago. "I ate everything that was available," she confessed. "In fact, we had a take-out food fest. … We had a day of having all our favorite stuff: deep-dish pizza, barbecue."

[Pepper]

Granted, most students' families don't pay the kind of tuition required at Sidwell Friends School — $32,069 for seventh-grader Malia and $31,069 for fourth-grader Sasha. But the Quaker day school commands that kind of money with a reputation for academic excellence.

 

 

 

See

Obama: Our finances have suffered, too

 

He says he and first lady Michelle Obama took a hit like everybody else when the economy nearly collapsed, telling ABC that a college fund for daughters Malia and Sasha has gone “up and down” with the stock market.

 

Obama says the first couple is “not that far removed from what most Americans are going through.”

 

$63,000 tuition per year before taxes is standard fare for the working stiffs.