Vacationing President Obama sees some dolphins

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After a frantic few days of dealing with terrorism threats and national security issues, President Obama took some time today for a bit more vacation fun. He and his two daughters drove about 20 minutes to Sea Life Park, a marine park in the seaside town of Waimanolo. The park’s website says it’s the place to swim with dolphins, hug sea lions and see other sea creatures, including sea turtles and penguins.

Family friends and the president’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her family joined the Obamas at Sea Life Park, which is on a bluff overlooking the ocean.

Upon re-entering the Kailua neighborhood where the president is staying around 10:30 a.m., the motorcade passed a small crowd of supporters and protesters. Some included disaffected Democrats in Hawaii, who planned a small protest in Kailua this morning to protest some of the president’s policies from his first year in office. They’re upset about Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, as well as the lack of a public option in the health care bill.

Obama defended his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan in his weekly radio address this morning, saying that ‘our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred,’ continuing that ‘we will do whatever it takes to defeat them and defend our country, even as we uphold the values that have always distinguished America among nations.’

-- Alana Semuels in Kailua, Hawaii