President Barack Obama is spending Father’s Day without his family, instead hitting the links in Palm Springs, California, with longtime friends.
First lady Michelle Obama and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, have been abroad in London and Italy, leaving the President home alone for a week.
After a two-day swing in Los Angeles and San Francisco for fundraisers and an address at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the President has been nestled this weekend in the luxurious resorts of Palm Springs.
On Saturday, he played golf at Sunnylands Golf Course, with longtime friends and former schoolmates from Hawaii, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Mike Ramos.
The golfer-in-chief is expected to do the same again on Sunday.
In a Father’s Day essay for “More” Magazine the President wrote about balancing family life while in the Oval Office, by treating dinner together as family as “sacrosanct.”
“At 6:30 p.m., no matter how busy I am, I leave work to go upstairs and have dinner with my family. That’s inviolable. My staff knows that it pretty much takes a national emergency to keep me away from that dinner table,” Obama said.
And, like most parents, the President is already predicting the absence he’ll feel when Malia, now a senior in high school, leaves for college next year.
“I’m already dreading that empty seat at the table when Malia goes off to school next fall … for as long as possible, I’m going to enjoy every minute of finally having us all together under one roof,” he said.
The first family will be back under one roof after a week apart on Sunday night.
Obama will return to Washington later today, as do the firstlLady and his daughters — for perhaps a little delayed Father’s Day celebration.
