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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Obamas visit Honolulu Zoo


Advertiser staff and wire service reports

President Obama and his family spent the late afternoon at the Honolulu Zoo taking in the Waikiki attraction after it was closed to the public, according to media pool reports.

Their visit was after they went to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl from 4:59 p.m. to 5:08 p.m.
The media pool asked the first family if they were ready to return to the mainland, wrote B.J. Reyes, Honolulu Star Bulletin reporter.
"No!" was the group response, led by President Obama. First Lady Michelle Obama added, according to the pool report,"Let's stay. We'll all stay. Are we all in? I'm trying to mount a coup."
Obama began the last day of his 11-day vacation with his usual early-morning workout at Marine Corps Base Hawaii and later returned to the base for a round of golf with friends. According to a pool report filed by Reyes, Obama's golf partners included Bobby Titcomb, Marty Nesbitt and Mike Ramos.
According to the pool report, Obama's maternal grandfather is entombed at Punchbowl.
His motorcade left the vacation compound at 4:33 p.m. and arrived 4:59 p.m. at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, Reyes said in his media pool report. He left at 5:08 p.m. and is headed back over the Pali to Kailua.
There were no members of the public in the area where the president visited, Reyes wrote.
As the motorcade left Kailua, neighbors and other small groups of people clustered on the side of the road to wave, Reyes wrote.
The first family is scheduled to leave Oahu tonight aboard Air Force One.
Obama spent part of today reading intelligence assessments and asking advisers about threats to the United States.
The 11-day trip to the state where he was born and grew up was not a complete break from work for the chief executive.
The president’s holiday vacation was delayed by a Senate vote on health care legislation, then interrupted — and, by all accounts, derailed — by the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.
Still, Obama played tennis and golf and attended a luau on the North Shore. He also took his daughters to the movies and treated them to shave ice.
The president's last day on Oahu began as usual:
• 7:08 a.m. today he left his Kailua vacation rental for the Kaneohe Marine base, where the president worked out without the first lady at the Semper Fit gym.
• 8:06 a.m. he returned to the Kailua compound. Obama later returned to the base with three longtime friends.