We ’re in the throes of summer vacation season , but at least one American is still on the job . While it ’s rumor that President Obama will keep abreast in the footsteps of President Clinton and holiday on Martha ’s Vineyard , he has n’t had a chance to intermit out his Bermuda shorts just yet . When Obama does take off , though , he ’ll join in the expansive tradition of presidential vacations , like these notable ones :
1. Abe Lincoln Doesn’t Go Too Far
Far - fling vacations are prissy , but President Lincoln preferred to stay a routine cheeseparing to home . When Lincoln needed a getaway from the rut and political upheaval of Civil War - era Washington , D.C. , he head to a unlike part of Washington , D.C. From 1862 to 1864 Lincoln spend June through November experience in a bungalow atop a pitcher’s mound at the Soldiers ' Home a few miles from the White House . Lincoln patently loved the fragile modification of scenery , which think of slightly cooler temperatures and a chance to hinge upon his horse each morn . If you ’re consider a stay - cation this year , look at this Honest Abe ’s blurb .
2. FDR Heats Up Georgia
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Some presidents pick out to steer to their hometowns or a beachside refuge for their holiday , but Franklin Roosevelt preferred to travel to western Georgia . Warm Springs , Georgia , is the home of ( you infer it ! ) warm springs that purportedly had therapeutic value for polio sufferers . FDR , who had contracted his own paralytic sickness in 1921 , started visiting Warm Springs in 1924 in the Bob Hope that exercise in the springs ' fond waters would cure him .
Although the springs did n’t reverse his illness , FDR felt like his prison term at the resort alleviated his symptoms pretty . In 1927 he bought the resort he ’d been staying at , and in 1932 he ordered a six - elbow room Georgia pine house to be make on the property . This house was FDR ’s retirement throughout his presidential term and became known as the Little White House .
FDR was sitting for a portrayal at the Little White House when he died of a fortuity in April 1945 . Today , the house is part of Georgia ’s state park system and is loose to visitors ; it ’s been maintain to look almost just as it did the daylight FDR died .
3. Movie Cowboy Does Real Ranching
consider George W. Bush was the first President of the United States to sneak away from the White House to drop sentence on his ranch ? Not quite . At the ending of his second condition as Governor of California in 1974 , Ronald Reagan yield just over half a million dollar sign to gain Rancho del Cielo in California ’s Santa Ynez Mountains .
The 688 - acre ranch , accomplished with stalls and a 1500 - satisfying - foot adobe brick house , was Reagan ’s go - to holiday destination while he was in federal agency , and he entertain some big name there , including Margaret Thatcher , Queen Elizabeth II , and Mikhail Gorbachev , who gamely tire a cowboy lid during his sojourn .
4. LBJ Does Some Ranching, Too
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Texan Lyndon Johnson was very involved in the everyday operation of his ranch . Johnson , who had set about into ranch in 1951 , grew his LBJ Ranch into a 2700 - acre spread head populated by 400 caput of Hereford cattle .
Johnson was no absentee owner when he was in Washington , either . Johnson frequently headed back on vacations and supposedly drove his honcho crazy by visit every day to speak about the atmospheric condition on the ranch or how the grazing land looked . Today , the National Park Service conserve LBJ ’s spread as a working spread , unadulterated with a ruck of cows descended from the Herefords Johnson bred .
5. George W. Bush Initiates a War on Brush
George W. Bush follow in LBJ ’s footstep and went to his own Texas cattle farm when he needed a getaway . Prairie Chapel Ranch , a 1583 - Akko spread Bush own near Crawford , Texas , served as the secondary White House throughout Bush ’s presidentship , and he was often prove clearing brush during holiday .
Bush was n’t just doing farm work , though . He exhorted visitor to join the " President ’s 100 - Degrees Club" by running three miles or biking 10 after the mercury hit 100 degrees . Anyone who could pull of the feat got a specialized Under Armour shirt as recognition . We can only hope one of the many extraneous dignitaries Bush harbor at the ranch " “ let in Vladimir Putin , Tony Blair , Silvio Berlusconi , Ariel Sharon , and Saudi King Abdullah " “ managed to get one of the coveted shirts into their suitcases .
6. Nixon Gets the Right Ice Cubes
When Richard Nixon want a rupture from Washington , he headed to a meek spread home he owned on Key Biscayne off Miami . Nixon ’s " Florida White House,“ which he chitchat 50 - plus times during his incumbency in berth , eventually swell to include three houses and a floating helipad , which the Department of Defense installed at a taxpayer expense of $ 400,000 . ( There was quite a little of room for taxpayer outrage at the $ 625,000 sum the government spend sprucing up the Florida White House ; one itemized expense was $ 621 for a replacement icemaker because " the President does not like ice with holes in it . “ )
return that this house was Nixon ’s retreat , it ’s no surprisal that some shady dealings transpire on the premises . Nixon allegedly talk about plans for the Watergate break of serve - in at the theatre , and he holed up there when the coverup came to light . The house fall into disrepair after Nixon deal it , and in 2004 it was raze to make room for a new construction .
The Florida White House was n’t Nixon ’s only retreat , though . He bought a mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Clemente , California soon after taking office in 1969 . Nixon dubbed his new diggings " La Casa Pacifica,“ but the printing press quickly started referring to the spreading as " the Western White House . “ This house was n’t gimcrack for taxpayers , either ; the government dropped over a million clam improving this home with temporary role quarter for staff member , helipads , and an upgrade heating system .
7. FDR’s Successor Gets His Own Little White House
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Harry Truman may have been from Missouri , but he headed south when he needed some R&R. Truman started suffering from exhaustion in late 1946 , and his physicians urge a tender atmospheric condition vacation to revitalize the President .
Truman took his vacation in a converted duplex in Key West that already held some chronicle . The planetary house , which was originally built in 1890 for the commandant and paymaster of Key West ’s naval substructure , had already hosted William Howard Taft while he was in place in 1912 . When Thomas Edison developed 41 new artillery to aid in the American crusade in World War I , he spent six month survive in the firm . Once Truman visited the house , though , it cursorily became known as Truman ’s Little White House . He ended up spending 175 day in Key West over the course of his two terms in situation . Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy after used the household while they were in office , and it ’s now open as a tourer attraction .
8. Teddy Roosevelt Goes Bear Hunting
Lounging on the beach is groovy , but do you really think Teddy Roosevelt would miss the chance to do something manly ? Roosevelt ’s vacation in 1905 take in him to the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs , CO , where he stay for three weeks while bear hunting .
9. Kennedy Retreats to His Compound
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start in 1926 , Joseph P. Kennedy lead off taking his family to Hyannisport , Massachusetts , on vacation each summer . His son John liked the area so much that in 1956 he corrupt a cottage of his own near his parents ' digs , and the family soon purchased a third cottage in the country , contribute rise to the name " the Kennedy Compound . “ JFK used his bungalow as a base of operation for his presidential campaign and later vacationed there each summer he was in office .
10. George H.W. Bush Prefers Not to Ranch
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Not to be outdone by the Kennedys , the Bush family has an even older compound of their own in Kennebunkport , Maine . In 1903 George H. Walker , the grandpa of George H.W. Bush , construct a heavy mansion on his oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport , and the property has remained in the home ever since .
George H.W. Bush used the Kennebunkport chemical compound as his holiday home during his presidency , and George W. Bush made a few getaways to the sign of the zodiac as well . Between father and son , they ’ve harbour some somewhat enceinte name at their summertime house , include Yitzhak Rabin , Vladimir Putin , and Nicolas Sarkozy .
