When Obama Goes Home to Hawaii
Thursday, Aug. 07, 2008 By JAY NEWTON-SMALL
This photo provided by the Punahou School shows Barack "Barry" Obama, second row right, in a 1978 senior yearbook photo at the Punahou School, the prestigious private academy in Honolulu, Hawaii.
When Barack Obama was last in Hawaii to visit his grandmother and sister, it was December 2006, and he was still a relatively unknown junior senator from Illinois deciding whether to run for President. Obama was shocked, then, when a paparazzi shot of him emerging from the Pacific Ocean on one of his favorite Oahu beaches ended up in People magazine. The episode added privacy concerns to his deliberations and gave him a taste of the fishbowl that is the Oval Office, as well as the campaign to get there.
He may have been annoyed by the attention, but clearly Obama wasn't deterred by it. Nineteen months later Obama, now a worldwide celebrity and the presumptive Democratic nominee, is heading to his native Hawaii for a weeklong vacation, with dozens of reporters in tow shadowing his every move, from getting a haircut to biking with his daughters. No matter how low key his intentions, there's little chance of the trip not looking like victorious Caesar returning from the front: not only did Obama win the Aloha state's primary and the Democratic nomination, he is arguably already the best-known Hawaiian native ever.
While Obama years ago chose to make his home in Chicago, he's said his native Hawaii holds a special place in his heart. He's written about how time there spent with his family recharges his batteries and gives him perspective. He will need it: after the coming week off, there will be little sleep through the naming of his vice president, the Democratic convention and the final two-month sprint to election day. And surely the Obama campaign won't mind some relaxed snapshots of the candidate partaking in typical summer vacation activities — body surfing, playing with his girls, eating ice cream — especially at a time when the GOP is doing their best to portray him as an aloof, out of touch celebrity more concerned with European crowds than average Americans.
So, what can a press pool, liberated from nearly eight years of dusty Crawford, Texas, "vacations" expect in Hawaii? First and foremost, some time at Hawaii's justifiably famous beaches. Obama, who spent much of his childhood near Hawaii's best-known beach, Waikiki, is a big fan of body surfing. His favorite spot is a place called Sandy's Beach on the windward side of the island. Much of Oahu outside of Waikiki is for locals — in fact, the island has permitted the construction of only four hotels outside of Waikiki — and the east coast, where Sandy's is found, is no exception. Known as "breakneck beach" for its 5- to 10-foot waves that crash into the sand vertically, Sandy's often leaves unwary body surfers with painful memories. (Note to first timers: Hawaiians, like surfers, measure waves from the top of a person's back to the crest so I don't recommend learning the art at Sandy's.)
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The island has felt the changes of his rising celebrity, and if Obama decides to do some reminiscing, he may find some surprising new faces at his old haunts. Teachers, students and parents at Punahou, the elite school that Obama attended for eight years on scholarship, don't quite know what to make of the Japanese tour buses that have begun to stop at their 76-acre campus; Obama's East Asian fans routinely photograph the Banyan tree he likely climbed during 5th-grade recesses and surely speculate on which apartment he lived in with his grandparents on Wilder Street across from the school.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1830510,00.html
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