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Presidents Rarely Rest In Vacation Homes

George W. Bush Vacationed Most As President

POSTED: 1:22 pm MDT September 19, 2008
UPDATED: 6:36 am MDT September 24, 2008

For presidents, their time in office is spent on the clock, on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But that doesn't mean that their time is necessarily spent in Washington, D.C.

Presidents for years have spent time at vacation homes, most notably current President George W. Bush.

Bush has spent the equivilent of more than 2½ years on vacation of his more than seven as president, the record among presidents. Bush has spend more than 460 days at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, and at least 450 more days at Camp David. Bush has also taken trips to Kennebunkport, Maine, to the home of his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

The previous presidential vacation-time record holder is the late President Ronald Reagan, who tallied 436 days in his two terms, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Western White House, the term currently used for Bush's Crawford ranch, has been used previously for presidents who had vacation homes in the Western part of the country.

Reagan's vacation home, Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara County, was also known as the Western White House, as were Richard Nixon's La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, Calif., and Lyndon Johnson's LBJ Ranch on the Pedernales River in Texas.

Gerald Ford's prefered vacation spot was his condominium at The Lodge in Vail, Colo.

Nixon also had a home in Key Biscayne, Fla., which was known as the Southern White House.

President Bill Clinton did not have another home when he was in the White House, although often vacationed on Martha's Vineyard.

Presidential author Ken Walsh said that Clinton allowed the public to weigh in on where he should vacation when he was running for re-election.

The people pushed for Clinton to visit a national park and he traveled to parks in the Western U.S.

"He's not an outdoor kind of guy," said Walsh. "After he was re-elected, he never went back."

President John F. Kennedy went east instead of west, making use of the family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. Kennedy's parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy bought the summer house they had been renting in Hyannis Port in 1929.

Through the years, their children established homes on adjacent properties nearby the summer house. These houses and the Cape Cod location served as a place for Kennedy family gatherings throughout the years.

Kennedy used the compound as a base for his Presidential campaign and as a summer White House as well as a presidential retreat until his assassination in 1963.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the first "official" presidential retreat when he created "Shangri-La" in 1942. President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David after his grandson.

Camp David is part of the Catoctin Mountain Park recreational area in Frederick County, Md., 60 miles from Washington, D.C. It was originally built as a camp for federal government employees and their families, by the Works Progress Administration in 1935, opening in 1938.

Since being opened, Camp David has been used regularly for summit meetings, including the historic 1978 Camp David Accords, which signaled peace between Israel and Egypt.

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