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 party 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,



Queen, M. Obama