4:55
- ABC News
- January 3, 2016
President Obama Returns to White House
Inside President Obama's two-week Hawaiian vacation.
4:55
\"Mr. Obama shook my hand. And we exchanged Merry Christmases and a shaka. [a Hawaiian \"hang loose\" sign],\" he said.
\"Mrs. Obama and I exchanged Merry Christmases. I also thanked her for her involvement in Play 60 and childhood obesity. She said, 'Thank you,'\" he said.
The Obamas' hike took only about an hour up and down, and by a little after 12 p.m. local time, they were back at their vacation home and down for the rest of the day.
--Jon Garcia
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21
President Obama made his vacation debut for the press on day three while playing golf at Mid Pacific Country Club in Lanikai.
The president enjoyed a near-PGA moment as he sunk a chip from 40 feet on the 18th green. While we don’t know his final score, he reveled in the moment -- tipping his cap to onlookers and high-fiving one of his golf partners before pointing toward the pool cameras, making sure the press caught the moment.
Obama's golf partners included childhood friends Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb, as well as golf buddy Darrell Harrington.
Obama started his day with his first trip to the gym this vacation, working out for about an hour at his usual gym on the grounds of the Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
--Jon Garcia and Serena Marshall
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20
President Obama took a pause during day two of his Hawaii vacation to take to Twitter to praise the teen victim of an apparently gang-related, random shooting in Knoxville, Tennessee.
\"Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot. He was a hero at 15. What's our excuse for not acting?\" the president asked on his Twitter feed.
Dobson, police say, was trying to shield three female friends from the gunfire when he was hit in the head late Thursday night.
Obama’s tenure as president has been marked by repeated incidents of major gun violence and he has been lobbying Congress unsuccessfully to pass stricter gun safely laws.
Shortly after Obama tweeted, he departed his Kailua rental home in a light rain to take his family on a hike.
First lady Michelle Obama and their two girls, Sasha and Malia, accompanied the president up to the Makiki Loop Hawaii Nature Center for a more than 90-minute hike. The Hawaii Nature Center is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving areas of Oahu and Maui for connecting children with nature.
The drive to the Nature Center took Obama by his childhood school, Punahou School, a private college prep institution where the president spent much of the 1970s.
The first family ended their Sunday with dinner at Morimoto, one of their go-to spots on Waikiki Beach. This is the fourth year in a row they’ve made the Asian-fusion restaurant—run by celebrity Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto—their first pick for dinner out.
--Jon Garcia
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19
If you’re a follower of the ABC News President Obama vacation blog, this might seem like a cut-and-paste of the “day one” entry of 2014.
The president went golfing with the same group as last year at the same course as last year. Staffers Mike Brush and Joe Paulsen hit the links with Obama and his long-time pal Bobby Titcomb at the Kaneohe Klipper golf club at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and, like last year, the round lasted about four hours and the White House, once again, did not release the scores.
Obama arrived in Hawaii in the wee hours of the morning and he got a little bit of a later start this year, starting his round in the early afternoon. Journalists traveling with the president reported seeing only the motorcade cars wiz by as they joined the procession as there were no direct sighting of the president or his golfing party.
--Jon Garcia
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/AP_Obama_Hawaii_151219_DC_4x3t_384.jpg\")
President Obama arrived in Hawaii this morning for his annual Christmas vacation with his family.
Air Force One landed early Saturday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. It's the family's seventh Oahu vacation since the president took office.
They plan to spend about two weeks on vacation. The president has no public events planned during the vacation.
As he stares down his final year in office, President Obama is making a bee-line for the golf course and the beach.
Obama departed today for a 16-day holiday in his native Hawaii, the first family's seventh Oahu vacation since the president took office.
It caps a rough-and-tumble year for the 44th President of the United States, marked by the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and terror attacks in the West that sent his approval ratings into a slide. But Obama is also celebrating some historic milestones in 2015: a landmark global climate agreement, massive trans-Pacific free-trade deal, a nuclear deal with Iran and legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide.
\"Since taking this office, I have never been more optimistic about a year ahead than I am right now,\" Obama told reporters at his year-end news conference before heading on vacation. \"In 2016, I am going to leave it all on the field.\"
ABC News is following the president in Hawaii to give you a behind-the-scenes look at Obama on vacation.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18
A video posted by John R. Parkinson (@jparkabc) on Dec 18, 2015 at 2:31pm PST
President Obama's vacation away from the White House is beginning on a somber tone as the president makes a brief detour to San Bernardino, California, to console grieving families of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.
The White House said Obama plans to meet privately with families and victims of the attack.
\"Obviously those families are going through a difficult time, not just because they've lost loved ones, but obviously, at the holiday season, I think that loss is even more acute,\" White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Thursday. \"So the president felt before he could begin his holiday, that it was important for him to spend some time with these -- with these Americans who are mourning.\"
Once he arrives in Hawaii on Saturday, Earnest added that the president's intent \"is to get a couple of weeks in Hawaii spending some down time\" with his family.
ABC News' John Parkinson contributed to this report.
This post will be regularly updated throughout the first family's 16-day vacation.
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