For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my
country. I want to thank the hard working American people for paying
$242 thousand dollars plus additional expenses for my vacation in
Spain.
My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff
and various guests had a wonderful time. Honestly, you just haven't
lived until you have stayed in a $2,500.00 per night suite at a 5-Star
luxury hotel. We only booked 70 rooms for our friends, staff and
family. Thank you also for the use of Air Force 2 and the 70 Secret
Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared
for at all times.
Air Force 2 only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and
carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2. It costs only $11,500
per hour to operate Air Force 2 and each additional plane for the
other members of our p arty group. These are only rough estimates, but
they are close (who's counting?). That's quite a carbon footprint as
my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens
to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we
can lessen our combined carbon footprint.
I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food
on the table and trying to make ends meet. I do appreciate your
sacrifice and do hope you find work soon. I was really exhausted
after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks
ago. I just had to get away for a few days. Will write more from
Martha's Vineyard where we will spend our sixth vacation this year
with more of our family and friends.
Cordially,
Michelle Obama
