Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama is taking his family on a mini-vacation to Asheville, North Carolina, next weekend, the White House confirmed in a statement.
Obama had been planning to take his wife and two daughters on an official trip to Indonesia and Australia late last month that coincided with spring break for Sasha and Malia.
But the trip was scrapped because the health care debate kept the President pinned down in Washington, so First Lady Michelle Obama took the girls to New York for a few days instead. The entire family has not had a vacation together since the holidays in Hawaii.
Obama, who will vacation in Western North Carolina from Friday until Sunday, has sweet memories of the state dating back to the 2008 campaign.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Friday that Obama has not been in Asheville - a picturesque city nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains - since October 2008, when he prepped for a presidential debate with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and spoke to a crowd of about 28,000 at a huge rally less than a month before the election.
Obama ended up carrying North Carolina in the general election, the first Democrat to do so since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
From CNN Politics
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Great. So glad he has been able to work out a vacation. One would have thought the indonesian and Australian trips were to have been official business but I guess not. Tax payers were under that impression even though the trip was conveniently scheduled at school vacation time. Such a coincidence. I wonder if he is taking over the Biltmore Hotel on the Biltmore estate or the Grove Park Inn at tax payers expense. Have fun. It is a beautiful time of year in the area. Not to worry. There is plenty of cash to cover all these Air Force One trips to where ever and when ever.