Sisters in Spain: Michelle Obama and Sasha wrap up mom-daughter trip abroad in style

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and adorable 9-year-old Sasha meet Spanish King Juan Carlos on the island of Mallorca, wrapping up their visit to southern Spain.
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and adorable 9-year-old Sasha meet Spanish King Juan Carlos on the island of Mallorca, wrapping up their visit to southern Spain.
Young Sasha's got the European double-kiss routine down pat as she greets Spain's Queen Sofia.
Young Sasha's got the European double-kiss routine down pat as she greets Spain's Queen Sofia.
Is Michelle Obama a classy First Lady or WHAT? Love the one-shouldered look during her visit to southern Spain with daughter Sasha.
Is Michelle Obama a classy First Lady or WHAT? Love the one-shouldered look.

I don’t know about you, but it’s absolutely thrilled me to see First Lady Michelle Obama taking 9-year-old Sasha on a mom-and-daughter holiday–and to SPAIN, no less! I don’t have kids, nieces or nephews, but if I did, I’d be booking us on some overseas trip as soon as they were old enough to appreciate it. And I’d be sitting them down right now  to watch video of adorable Sasha meeting the king and queen of Spain.  How it does my heart proud to see this darling young brown-skinned girl looking confident alongside her mom, realizing she’s a princess in her OWN right. Nothing like self-assurance, even when it comes in the package of a preciously dressed pre-teen.

I was super-proud and psyched last year when the President and Michelle took Sasha and Malia with them to Paris and London. I wrote then about how important it is for youngsters—and especially African-American ones, who don’t always see themselves portrayed positively in the American media—to travel abroad and experience life through a different lens. Just think of all the young black kids out there who see Sasha strolling the streets of Spain, visiting its treasures, meeting its royalty, witnessing the crowds of Spaniards eagerly seeking a glimpse of her and her glamorous First Lady mom. SURELY that’s got to have an effect on their individual and collective psyches, even if they don’t realize it now.  

I’ve loved reading about the Obama ladies’ trip since they landed in Marbella, on Spain’s sun-drenched Costa del Sol, earlier this week. They toured an historic cathedral in the southern Spanish city of Granada; took in a flamenco performance in the region where this legendary dance was born; toured the Moor-built Alhambra at night. The traveling half of the First Family and their friends stayed at Marbella’s Hotel Villa Padierna, a five-star Ritz-Carlton resort on the Mediterranean Sea. And while this was hardly budget travel, folks tend to forget that the Obamas are wealthy folks, thanks largely to royalties President Barack has generated from his best-selling books.

I’m not even going to start on the haters screaming that the Obamas’ trip abroad is costing U.S. taxpayers untold dollars, and that Michelle is somehow a “modern-day Marie Antoinette” for daring to travel abroad on a luxury vacation while America’s in a recession. As has been made clear, the Obama ladies and friends paid for their own stay in Spain, although granted, the Secret Service had to travel with them and they flew aboard Air Force Two. As far as I’m concerned, the complainers SHOULD be glad we’ve got a globally minded First Family that actually wants to see and positively engage with the world. 

And for THAT, all of us Americans ought to be proud.

Olympic dreams dashed, but Chicago’s still a world-class city

It’s been a tough weekend for those of us Chicagoans who dreamed of bringing the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to our fair city. Friday, we found out that years of preparation came to naught when the International Olympic Committee ousted Chicago in the first round of voting, along with Tokyo. We longed to share our Midwestern American city—one filled with incredible architecture, home to people from dozens of nationalities and languages, not to mention innovative cuisine that rivals anything Los Angeles or New York City have to offer. But alas—the Olympic dream wasn’t to be, despite the passionate presentations of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle in Copenhagen last week.

As a native Chicagoan, though, I like to think the city’s exposure to the global community over the past few years have exposed more of the world to the treasures here. Perhaps instead of foreign visitors automatically setting their sights on New York and Hollywood, they’ll spend their holidays and valuable tourist dollars here in the Windy City, a cultural gem underrated far too long.

But good for Rio de Janeiro. May they host a memorable 2016 Olympics, one that will showcase the amazing and gorgeous diversity of the Brazilian people. If we in Chicago couldn’t take home the gold, I’m just glad that Brazil—and South America, for the first time—will get a chance to shine on the world stage.

Will President Obama bring home the Olympic gold to Sweet Home Chicago?

Crowds frolick around "The Bean," an Anish Kapoor-designed 110-ton stainless steel sculpture that helps define downtown's Millennium Park. WHEN Chicago is named as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, you can bet locals and tourists alike will be celebrating at this gorgeous Windy City spot.
Crowds frolick around "The Bean," an Anish Kapoor-designed 110-ton stainless steel sculpture that helps define downtown's Millennium Park. WHEN Chicago is named as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, you can bet locals and global tourists alike will be celebrating at this gorgeous Windy City spot, with Chicago's distinctive skyline in the background.

Many of us living here in Chicago were thrilled to wake up this morning and learn that President Barack Obama confirmed that he will INDEED be making that Air Force One flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, later this week to help his adopted hometown of Chicago secure the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

UrbanTravelGirl readers know I have much love for our American commander-in-chief, as well as for First Lady Michelle and their two adorable daughters Malia and Sasha. I’m beyond proud to have this beautiful black family representing what’s RIGHT about America – its opportunity and its promise. So the fact that the Chicago 2016 Olympic team is counting on Brother Barack as the “closer,” to bring home the Olympic gold to Sweet Home Chicago, is almost too much for this South Side native.

Not sure how many of you have ever traveled to Chicago or know much about the city, but the “South Side” always gets a bad rap. It’s largely (as things often are viewed in America) because it’s home to a significant portion of the city’s African-Americans. Yes, there are plenty of violent, rundown parts of the South Side, but there also are majestic tree-lined enclaves filled with smart, open-minded people like Hyde Park (home to the world-renowned University of Chicago and the Obamas themselves!) and Beverly (a community that rivals those on the tony North Shore).

Just four days from now, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote and determine whether to bestow the 2016 Summer Games on Tokyo, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Chicago. And for me, the fact that two African-American South Siders – Barack and Michelle – are going to be standing on that podium (along with Multimedia Queen Oprah Winfrey) making the case for bringing the world to this amazingly diverse city on Lake Michigan shores is cool beyond words. These two worldly, well-traveled black folks, who have not just succeeded in these supposedly United States but thrived beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, prove that the phrase “only in America” still rings true.

"Fired up and ready to go," indeed!

Have black Americans REALLY traveled until they’ve visited Africa?

Over the years, I’ve visited nearly 30 countries in North America, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe (where I’ve traveled so many times I’ve completely lost count).

But I’ve never been to Africa. And as an African-American, that sounds pretty pathetic.

Places on the continent are always on my mental “to-do” list, West African countries like Senegal and North African ones like Egypt and Morocco. But I haven’t made it there yet.

I started thinking about this during President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Ghana. Sure, he was there to send a message to the African world about the United States’ ongoing support—albeit with conditions that included self-responsibility—but what impressed me most about this native son’s return to his father’s home continent was the fact he took his wife Michelle, daughters Sasha and Malia, and First Mom-in-Law Marian along on the trip.

While we know the Obamas have visited Africa before—going to Kenya to meet the president’s relatives—this trip had to have especially important significance for First Lady Michelle, her mom and even the girls, as all are the descendants of both African-American slaves and white slaveowners. Visiting the “Door of No Return,” where mothers, fathers and children were violently and permanently separated from their homeland and shipped across the Atlantic as chattel, must have been mind-blowing. It’s a horribly painful part of American history, but as black folks, it’s ours. And it’s important for us to own it—and in the process, make that reconnection to the continent that often feels far away and foreign to many of us.

Which brings me back to my original point: Can we black Americans really feel well-traveled if we’ve never set foot on African soil? I’m starting to think “NO.”

While unlike President Obama, who knows his ancestral country and village, most of us don’t know specifically from where our foreparents hailed. We generally assume it was someplace in West Africa since that’s where most slaves sent to the New World lived, but can’t claim that direct connection to Senegal or Guinea or The Gambia. Still, many black folks who have traveled to these places describe a sense of feeling “at home” once they arrived, as if those centuries-old mystical links broken during the Middle Passage somehow felt restored.

But I’m curious what you guys think. For those of you who HAVE visited Africa—and I’m talking anywhere on the continent—how did it change you and your outlook on who you are? Did you feel like you had “come home?” And how important was it for you to make that reverse trip across the ocean?

As for me, I think I’m going to start planning that African journey now.

(Young) Americans in Paris and London: The Obama girls take Europe by storm

Talk about a heavenly experience. Along with President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha got to privately check out the famed Notre Dame Cathedral this month during their first trip to Paris. All kids should be so lucky!
Talk about a heavenly experience. Along with President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha got to privately check out the famed Notre Dame Cathedral this month during their first trip to Paris. All kids should be so lucky!

I was thrilled to read last week that adorable young Malia and Sasha Obama would be joining President Barack and First Lady Michelle (and of course, First Granny Marian) in Paris and later London for their first European trip. It did my 40-year-old heart a world of good to know that these charming mesdemoiselles would be serving as America’s junior ambassadors to a continent obsessed with their glamorous parents—and one thrilled to see our formerly “you’re-either-with-us-or-against-us” nation back in the global mix.

But politics aside, I was thrilled for these two African-American girls, ages 8 and 10, both getting a chance to experience what life is like outside the prism of the United States. Granted, these are kids of privilege. Even if their dad wasn’t the leader of the free world, they’re the children of extremely well-educated and worldly parents and had a chance to travel to Africa back in 2006. But as I’ve found over the years, there is NOTHING like foreign travel to open your eyes to the realities of your own country. I just wish I’d had the chance to discover this way earlier in life rather than starting in my 20s. I’ve certainly tried to make up for lost time, visiting nearly 30 countries since then!

Just imagine how different we Americans would be if we started engaging the world as kids the Obamas’ age. It sure would be hard for us to demonize folks in foreign countries as “the other” if we’d had a chance to stroll their streets and museums. Eat in their restaurants. Shop in their stores. Hang out in their parks and visit their schools. And the same would be true if kids from other countries had the chance to experience America in person, rather than through stereotypes and caricatures we export to them through popular culture. 

And while I think it’s important for American kids of all races to have such exposure, I think it’s especially key for African-American ones. Whether affluent or poor, so often they grow up viewing their lives through other folks’ lenses, never realizing that there are places where they can just BE without being constantly defined (and often limited) by their color. It’s a freedom that’s hard to explain unless you leave America’s shores and spend time in other cultures where being black isn’t immediately seen as a liability. Which isn’t to say that racism and discrimination don’t exist in Europe and elsewhere, because they certainly do. But you don’t subconsciously spend every public moment waiting for some racially inspired slight, and that’s supremely liberating in itself.

So good for you, Malia and Sasha, getting out there and exploring this big, fabulous world of ours. And it’s good for the world to experience THEM, as well.