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Obama on Vacation: Visits Bookstore with Daughters
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published August 30th, 2010
- Washington File
- Unrated
PRESIDENT Barack Obama began his 10-day vacation on a studious note Friday, stopping at a local bookstore for his first public appearance on Martha’s Vineyard.
With daughters Sasha and Malia in tow, Obama stepped into the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Main Street in Vineyard Haven the morning after arriving on the quaint island. Crowds mobbed the landmark shop, cheering and snapping pictures.
“I said, ‘Have a nice vacation, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘You, too. We’re hoping to,’” said Ed Murphy of Simsbury, Ct., who happened to be in the store with his three children. One, 14-year-old Brendan, had bought a copy of Obama’s memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” which the president autographed in a ballpoint pen.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing; you don’t usually see a president in the bookstore,” said 12-year-old Ciara Murphy.
After a short time inside, Obama left the store holding a brown paper bag. He appeared to have been stocking up on summer reading. Among the president’s purchases, according to bookstore cashier Leroy Hazelton, were “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “The Red Pony” by John Steinbeck.
Hazelton said his impression of the president and his daughters was that they were “normal all the way.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” said Hazelton, 65. “Just a happy father bringing the daughters in.”
Deputy press secretary Bill Burton has declined to reveal the president’s vacation reading list in recent days but planned an afternoon news conference after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the administration has invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Washington next month to resume peace talks.
The vacation comes after a series of positive developments for the administration, including plugging the Gulf oil spill, withdrawing the last combat troops from Iraq and seeing Congress head out of Washington on its own recess.
With daughters Sasha and Malia in tow, Obama stepped into the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Main Street in Vineyard Haven the morning after arriving on the quaint island. Crowds mobbed the landmark shop, cheering and snapping pictures.
“I said, ‘Have a nice vacation, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘You, too. We’re hoping to,’” said Ed Murphy of Simsbury, Ct., who happened to be in the store with his three children. One, 14-year-old Brendan, had bought a copy of Obama’s memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” which the president autographed in a ballpoint pen.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing; you don’t usually see a president in the bookstore,” said 12-year-old Ciara Murphy.
After a short time inside, Obama left the store holding a brown paper bag. He appeared to have been stocking up on summer reading. Among the president’s purchases, according to bookstore cashier Leroy Hazelton, were “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “The Red Pony” by John Steinbeck.
Hazelton said his impression of the president and his daughters was that they were “normal all the way.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” said Hazelton, 65. “Just a happy father bringing the daughters in.”
Deputy press secretary Bill Burton has declined to reveal the president’s vacation reading list in recent days but planned an afternoon news conference after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the administration has invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Washington next month to resume peace talks.
The vacation comes after a series of positive developments for the administration, including plugging the Gulf oil spill, withdrawing the last combat troops from Iraq and seeing Congress head out of Washington on its own recess.
