"I WANT TO THANK THE HARD WORKING AMERICAN PEOPLE"

Hi All,

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 $242,000 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've stayed in a $2,500. 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 JP-4 jet fuel for this trip, and carbon emissions were a mere 1,231 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 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 I do hope you will find a job 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 to Spain. 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


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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry