The Massachusetts Town The Clintons & Obamas Can't Resist Vacationing At

The coastal towns of the northeast U.S. aren't just for those looking to cosplay the coastal grandmother fashion trend. Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts is also the favorite vacation spot of many American presidents. The presidential history of the island traces back to the 19th century, when Ulysses S. Grant brought his family there for a trip (although over a century prior, John Adams visited a few decades before becoming a sitting president himself). Presidents of modern history have frequented Martha's Vineyard for summertime trips with their families too, including 42nd president Bill Clinton. It's no secret that 44th president Barack Obama enjoys vacationing on Martha's Vineyard as well.

According to a 2016 Boston Magazine piece on presidents on Martha's Vineyard, both Clinton and Barack have frequented the bookstores on the island. They have also enjoyed outdoor activities like golfing. Since their trips sometimes overlapped, the men even played golf together, such as in mid-August 2015. Barack and Clinton played alongside Ron Kirk and Vernon Jordan at the Farm Neck Golf Club in the Martha's Vineyard town of Oak Bluffs. Boston Magazine said the rumored winner of that friendly game was Barack.

The two politicians also had various menu items at Martha's Vineyard food establishments named for them.

Carol McManus from Espresso Love, a Martha's Vineyard coffee shop, told Boston Magazine she baked the Presidential Muffin for Bill Clinton the first time he and his family vacationed there. It was seemingly named due to the patriotic color scheme of the ingredients: strawberries, cream cheese, and blueberries (red, white, and blue). Clinton never ate one then, but on his family's next trip, a White House staffer came to Espresso Love to order some goodies for the first family, with the intention of possibly setting up a daily order. The Clintons even came to the shop a week later for a surprise visit. "The president said to me, 'I wanted to meet the lady who was doing the baking for me,'" McManus said. As for Barack Obama, he was the namesake of both an ice cream flavor (Barack My World) and a drink (the Obamarita) at two separate Martha's Vineyard establishments.

In 2019, Barack and Michelle Obama bought a beautiful Martha's Vineyard estate for $11.75 million — and that investment likely means they will continue vacationing there for a long time. Barack told People in 2020 about his pipe dream of being able to engage with the world the way non-former-presidents do. He acknowledged that he'll never quite have that. "But there are things that I can do that I couldn't do as president," Barack said, mentioning riding his bike around Martha's Vineyard with Michelle. Wearing masks due to COVID-19 helped with their anonymity. "And it felt pretty close to what I had imagined — that sense of freedom, that sense of being able to go wherever you wanted," Barack said. "So it's not all the way back, but, 70, 75 percent back. That's not bad."