Posted on 07/10/2010 8:35:33 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
President Obama and his family are scheduled to vacation on Mount Desert Island next weekend, Rep. Chellie Pingree's office said Friday.
Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia are expected to visit Acadia National Park, which is on the island, during their visit from July 16-18. The 47,000-acre park averages more than 2 million visitors annually and is the only national park in New England.
Mount Desert Island is about 108 square miles and a short distance off the Maine coast. It has long been a summer vacation haven for some of America's wealthiest and most prestigious families.
Martha Stewart owns a home in Seal Harbor, which is on the island just outside Bar Harbor, the well-known tourist mecca.
"What an honor that the Obama family has chosen Maine for vacation when they could have gone anywhere in the country," Pingree said in a news release. "I think the Obamas will really enjoy the quiet woods, beautiful coast, wonderful people and everything else that brings thousands of families here every year."
Last summer the Obamas vacationed at Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. Similar to Martha's Vineyard, Mount Desert Island offers a variety of expansive vacation rentals that can provide privacy to the first family.
Pingree's office said the visit is personal and no public events are scheduled.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe has a vacation home in the coastal town of Hancock, which is a couple of miles by boat from Mount Desert Island.
Mount Desert Island harbors 5 of Forbes 400 Property owners make cut of magazine’s richest Americans..
Martha Stewart is not the richest but is said to be the most famous seasonal resident. In 1997, Stewart acquired the summer estate of former automobile industry scion Edsel Ford. Her Seal Harbor summer house may have an assessed value of over $9 million.
The wealthiest seasonal resident of Mount Desert is Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III, head of Fidelity Investments. Johnson, still said worth $8 billion despite the poor economy and the beneficiary of trusts that own several properties near Somesville.
Two Texans who summer in Mount Desert among the billionaires, are Charles Butt, a supermarket magnate, net worth $4 billion from San Antonio, known locally for being the root cause of a monstrous traffic jam between Ellsworth and MDI in June 2003 (Mainers have long memories), when crews he hired took nearly 12 hours to transport a large apple tree by truck from northern Ellsworth to his waterfront estate in Northeast Harbor.
Robert M. Bass, a Fort Worth resident whose family made its fortune in the oil and gas industry, has a net worth of $4 billion. Bass, owns three properties in Seal Harbor, including a $4.5 million oceanfront estate that overlooks the Cranberry Isles.
In 2005, billionaire Mitchell Rales bought the former Northeast Harbor home of Washington socialite Susan Mary Alsop for $5.5 million and tore it down. According to a building permit at the town office, he is replacing Alsop’s former oceanfront home with a $12.5 million mansion.
David Rockefeller Sr., a son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the former CEO and chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank is listed as the owner of record for more than a dozen properties in Mount Desert, including Bartletts Island, which is nearly 2,000 acres in size and has an assessed value of $5.2 million (at least).
Other wealthy seasonal MDI residents whose fortunes have been noted in past years by Forbes include Roger Milliken, the 93-year-old chairman of textile firm Milliken & Co. Milliken owns a summer home in Northeast Harbor, as does his brother Gerrish Milliken Jr.
Bar Harbor resident Tristram Colket Jr. said $725 million (in the good times). Colket's grandfather John T. Dorrance perfected a way to can condensed soup, become president of Campbell’s Soup, lives on a 25-acre, $6.6 million oceanfront estate on the shore of Frenchman Bay.
George W. Strawbridge Jr. is a Campbell’s Soup heir who Forbes estimated in 2002 to have a fortune of $550 million, (in the good times again). Strawbridge owns a $3.2 million home (average) in Northeast Harbor.
William P. Stewart Jr., executive chairman of investment firm W.P. Stewart & Co., is known for having thrown lavish Fourth of July parties at his Northeast Harbor home on Somes Sound. Commissioned fireworks displays and hired Randy Travis and Reba McEntire to perform at the parties.
You pick!
When did the Office of the President start getting 12 weeks vacation a year?
Isn’t this his third vacation since the oil leak began?
Someone needs to count up the vacation days and subtract them from the time he has ostensibly been “working”.
Yeeeesh!!! The libs screeched every time GWB headed for Waco, even though most of the time he was still working and spent a lot of that time doing the kind of hard ranch chores that give a man time to think.
Can anyone picture oBambi in jeans and work gloves clearing brush in a Texas sun?
I am so utterly sick of liberal hypocrisy I am literally nauseated.
Movin’ on up. To the east side. To that......
This is about as far as he can get from the Gulf and still remain in the continuous 48 states.
There goes the neighborhood
Gotta give John D. Jr. creds for building the carriage roads in Acadia National Park and pouring lots of money into preserving it over the years.
It's a beautiful area, and you don't have to be a millionaire to enjoy it.
I'm sure they will be well attired and make us all proud!!!!!
RIGHT!!
BAHAAAAA! HAAAAAAA!! BAHAAAAA! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Thanks I needed a laugh where he is concerned!
going to pay back the Maine RINOs? Here’s your jackson now shut up and get lost.
The dude vacations more than the traveling gnome!
I should not say this..but My Daughter sent him a bill for her lost wages (she was a freshman in HS with a “real” job down there...and yes...I kinda egged her on)....BUT...He sent her a very nice letter with a check!!!
Id shake his hand in a heart beat!...Just ‘cause they're rich...Doesn't make them all pricks
Just IMHO...
Must be friggin’ nice to run off on vacation when everything “at work” is going to heck in a hand basket. Talk about an out of touch elitist. obama and Michele might as well say “let them eat cake.”
There goes the neighborhood,
The only good thing about him spending so much time (and our money) on vacation is that while he’s running around trying to keep the demanding little missus happy he’s not f’in up our Country any more. Just think how much damage he could do if he was on the job full-time.
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