Your memory is right. They never got very far from each other.
I thought he went to China by himself, and then came home early partly to be back wtih her.
Remember in all the pictures she was either right there by him, or within arms' length away? Even when it was a picture of just him with a foreign leader, she was RIGHT THERE close. Her arm was even in some of the pics. of just the Pres. and another leader.