
It’ll be with mixed emotions that summer denizens of Martha’s Vineyard welcome President Obama and his family this weekend.
Yes, the commander in chief’s presence can sometimes snarl traffic or make tee times tougher to get, but it’ll also be the Obamas’ final trip to the Vineyard during his presidency and there’s a certain cachet to having the leader of the free world vacationing on the island.
Then again, depending on the outcome of the election in November, it’s possible that Obama’s successor will also make Martha’s Vineyard the Summer White House. No, we’re not talking about Donald Trump, who’s likely to hole up in August at his Pebble Beach estate Mar-a-Lago, not Martha’s Vineyard, if he’s the next president.
We’re talking about Hillary Clinton, of course, who has vacationed on the Vineyard several times with her husband, the 42nd president, always staying at a house on Oyster Pond in Edgartown that’s owned by Liberty Hotel owner Dick Friedman. Will they return if Clinton becomes the country’s first female president? Probably. (For what it’s worth, Hillary Clinton will be on the island Aug. 20 for a fund-raiser before heading to a fund-raiser in Provincetown the next night that will feature a performance by Cher.)
In the meantime, the Obamas will arrive on Martha’s Vineyard Saturday and stay through Aug. 21, making it one of their longer summer sojourns. As always, there are no public events planned for the president, who typically spends his time on the island playing golf and . . . playing golf. He and a crew that has included current and former NBA players Alonzo Mourning, Ray Allen, and Steph Curry, and comedian Larry David, seem to prefer the links at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, but he also plays at Vineyard Golf Club, Edgartown Golf Club, and Mink Meadows Golf Club. You might think Obama would be pretty good after so many rounds of golf, right? Think again.
Otherwise, he and first lady Michelle Obama — and the couple’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, when they’re on the island — stay pretty much to themselves. You won’t see this president taking an impromptu stroll down Main Street in Edgartown like Bill Clinton. Indeed, as his motorcade hurries past Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury on its way to the golf course, Obama rarely acknowledges the shouts of supporters on the porch, keeping the tinted windows of his black SUV all the way up.
The White House hasn’t said where the Obamas are staying this summer, but we know it’s the same seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house overlooking Vineyard Sound where the first family has stayed twice before. Not your typical island rental, the property includes an infinity pool and a basketball court. Obama and his wife and kids usually spend an afternoon or two at a private beach in Edgartown, take a casual bike ride — always wearing helmets — in the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest, and dine out a few times, often at State Road, the Beach Plum Inn, or The Sweet Life Cafe.
All in all, uneventful, the way most people like their vacations to be.