Malia, Sasha and the summer of '09

Slides
Photos

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-09 10:04

WASHINGTON: If Malia and Sasha Obama write "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essays as they head back to school this week, oh, the stories they can tell.

US President Barack Obama's daughters Malia and Sasha traveled far and wide during their summer vacation including trips to Italy, France and Ghana. They are seen with their father at a store (above) during a vacation on Martha's Vineyard in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, on August 30. (insert) The first family tours the Cape Coast Castle in Cape Coast, Ghana, on July 11. [Agencies]

The president's daughters have prowled the Kremlin in trench coats, roamed a Harry Potter movie set in London, and studied slave history in Africa as they racked up tens of thousands of kilometers crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean, time zones and international borders with their parents this summer.

Stateside, 11-year-old Malia and 8-year-old Sasha explored the American West on a family tour of Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon. They went whitewater rafting in the rain and hail in Montana, watched Old Faithful shoot steam skyward, and spent time picking peaches in Colorado.

Summer ended with a week at a secluded estate on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where the girls dug their toes in the sand at the beach, rode bikes and hung out at an arcade, followed by a final getaway to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.

The lazy days of summer between the girls' trips included watching Fourth of July US Independence Day fireworks from the White House balcony, sleepovers inside and playtime on the lawn with the furry Portuguese Water Dog they named Bo.

At the start of the vacation, Sasha and Malia joined first lady Michelle Obama for a Paris rendezvous with dad, who had been visiting the Middle East and Europe. The president headed back to Washington after a few days, but Michelle and the girls lingered, spending a few more days in Paris and London, part 8th birthday celebration for Sasha.

In Paris, they toured the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Louvre and Pompidou Center museums. They ate lunch at the Elysee presidential palace with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla. They shopped at Bonpoint, a high-end children's store.

London brought visits to Big Ben, the British Parliament's famous clock tower, as well as to Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, a Harry Potter movie set and Buckingham Palace, where they got a tour and a greeting from Queen Elizabeth II. They also took in The Lion King musical.

The family set out on another trip right after Malia turned 11 on July 4 that took them to Moscow, Rome and Ghana - all in one week.

At the Kremlin, Sasha stuffed her hands into her pockets as she walked its hallways. President Barack Obama said they began calling her Agent 99, after a character in the 1960s TV spy comedy Get Smart.

"I thought she was going to pull out her shoe phone," the president joked.

A highlight of the visit to Rome was the Obama family's meeting with the pope. The sisters also took in such ancient Roman archaeological wonders as the Colosseum and the Pantheon, a domed monument in the city center. The also had fun learning how to make blackberry and banana gelato at Giolitti, the Italian capital's most famous ice cream parlor.

The trips weren't all carefree and full of fun, however. There were sober moments, too, and lessons to be learned.

After touring Cape Coast Castle in Accra, Ghana, a holding cell for Africans shipped into slavery, Obama said he hoped that seeing the former slave fortress would help his daughters, "who are growing up in such a blessed way," to understand their obligation to fight oppression and cruelty.