Posted on 06/21/2004 3:21:46 AM PDT by Liz
Hector Mata/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Senator John Kerry, who spent the weekend at his family's home in Nantucket, Mass., took his boat out for a Sunday morning ride.
NANTUCKET, Mass., June 20 - Thwarted by fog, a flat bicycle tire and a tricky wind, Senator John Kerry spent most of a shortened Father's Day weekend secluded in his wife's seaside retreat here in one of the nation's most exclusive summer playgrounds.
His Boeing 757 campaign plane was grounded in Washington on Friday night when the weather prevented landing at Nantucket's airstrip, which has seen only one jet of such size before. Arriving late Saturday morning, his planned bicycle ride around the island was aborted after he discovered a bubble on his back tire. And on Sunday morning, he sped out to a remote beach in his stepson's powerboat in hopes of kite-surfing, a new extreme sport, only to return home after half an hour without even zipping up his wetsuit.
"The wind died," Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told reporters as he cruised by on the 32-foot Contender, a gentleman's fishing vessel said to cost about $150,000.
Mr. Kerry and his family did dine out Saturday night at the Pearl, where sautéed yuzu-dusted day boat sea scallops go for $36, with his fellow senator from Massachusetts, Edward M. Kennedy, his wife, Vicki, and her parents. But on Sunday afternoon, he canceled a beachside brunch at one of the island's most expensive restaurants, with aides explaining that his two adult daughters preferred a quiet meal at home.
Over all, Mr. Kerry's first visit here since he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination this spring made barely a hiccup in the hubbub, as Nantucket's summer season, when the population swells from 10,000 to more than 50,000, opened with a film festival that drew Jim Carrey, John Irving and Cynthia Nixon. Other than people who saw his red, white and blue plane parked at the airport many here did not even realize Mr. Kerry was in their midst.
"This island has treated famous and well-off people as though they were normal people for a long time," explained Greg Lockhart, manager of Young's Bicycle Shop, where Mr. Kerry made a brief stop on Sunday afternoon to buy two $8 tubes for his Serotta road bike. "It's one of the reasons they come here."
Mr. Kerry has been coming here regularly since at least 1995, when he married the ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz at the three-story, five-bedroom house she owns on Brant Point, where the clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger also has a home and H. Wayne Huizenga, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, recently sold one. Valued at $9 million in 1995, the house - like nearly every other one here in the tightly controlled historic district, weathered gray cedar shingles with white trim - has a large screened-in porch, decorative columns, and a green-and-white love-seat swing on its sandy front lawn.
The flag flew at half-staff this weekend in memory of former President Ronald Reagan.
Though some Democrats were concerned about the image of their wealthy candidate frolicking among the fabulously wealthy here on an island where the average home sells for $1.4 million, Mr. Kerry insisted not only on coming, but also on trying to kite-surf, a dangerous combination of waterskiing and parasailing with basic equipment costing about $2,500.
"Let Kerry be Kerry," said David Wade, Mr. Kerry's press secretary. "It's a place he and his family have been coming to for years. He loves to be out on the water.''
"He'll be America's most active president since Teddy Roosevelt," Mr. Wade added.
The weekend was Mr. Kerry's first real holiday since the week he spent at his wife's Sun Valley, Idaho, home in March, where he was widely photographed snowboarding. It was reminiscent of President Bill Clinton's vacations in borrowed houses on nearby Martha's Vineyard, and a sharp contrast to President Bush's frequent brush-clearing forays on his sweltering ranch in Crawford, Tex. Michael S. Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor, also spent a weekend here - albeit at a friend's house - during his 1988 presidential campaign. Several members of Mr. Kerry's traveling staff flew their wives or girlfriends in to join them at a downtown inn.
But with the wind coming from the north and then luffing, Mr. Kerry could not get airborne.
On Saturday, he tooled around the harbor and read aboard his Boston Whaler, perhaps perusing one of three hardcover copies of Hunter S. Thompson's 1972 classic, "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail," that his aides brought for Mr. Thompson to sign at a fund-raiser Monday in Aspen, Colo. On Sunday, after the brief boat ride not to kite-surf, Mr. Kerry took a short walk to the bike shop, then attended a 6 p.m. Spanish-language Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church and strolled, hand in hand with his wife, to the elegant Oran Mor restaurant.
"A pleasure to meet the next president!" someone called from the crowd waiting to greet him outside the church.
Inside the bike shop, Mr. Kerry was treated like any other longtime customer, except when Mr. Lockhart suggested he try a Cannondale, "a good Pennsylvania company, so we thought it would help him with a swing state."
"Yesterday, a man who wanted to be president, Lamar Alexander, came here," the salesman shrugged. "Nobody recognized him but me because he comes here every year."
Yup, real man of the people there.
Not worthy of "compound" status?
Don't you just hate it when that happens - fog grounds your personal jet, winds prevent you from going out on the sound and you just have stay inside at your wife's fourth or fifth spare residence? I know I do.
Sounds like Teddy in his Oldsmobile.
Oh BOTHER..............
I'll admit, I didn't know what yuzu was. I had to look it up.
I hate that.......it really gets in the way of a campaign script.
"Hey, Ter-ay-sa, a piece of advice. Don't get in the car if John's going over any bridges."
Maybe he had Oran Mor's fusion cookery of Hand~Cut Fettucine with Soft Herb Lie and Shaved French Black Truffles or the Crisp~Pressed Organic Tofu with Chinese Cabbage and Spicy Peanut Sauce or the Hot Curried "Kid" with New World Spinners and Golden Pineapple or maybe the Lobster Risotto with Sauce Nage or Shrimp in the Style of Southern France.
.........you mean, as in Kennedy Compound (gag)?.......
Geez, is this guy ever not on a "rest break"?
Hmm I thought he was supposed to be like Truman (according to dukakis)?????? Now he's trying to imitate Teddy Roosevelt?
Who can blame him. You never know when some riff raff has gotten into the kitchen and might be spitting in the food.
You always get better service from your own personal staff of trusted servants.
No wait. He doesn't have servants, his wife has the servants. He's a man of the people.
And I'm sure they're part of the group anxiously awaiting Kerry increasing the minimum wage to $7/hour.
Memo to Kerry: be bold!! If raising the minimum wage is such a great idea, let's raise it to $25 an hour! Or wait, why not $50 an hour?
The constant "rest breaks" and the sports activity might be on doctor's orders. Some have conjectured Kerry has Marfan's Syndrome which doctors treat by urging constant physical activity to keep the joints limber.
Yeah, and his personal butler really works for his wife (smirk).
What a bunch of bully.
LOL! You took the words right out of my mouth!
"IIIIIIIIIII am everyday people...." <- John Kerry's new theme song?
Or maybe it was just a cheeseburger and a cold beer. (slapping forhead) D'oh! What was I thinking??
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