Glass houses, stones, etc. (Vail Daily) — First lady Michelle Obama enjoyed locally grown fare at a Vail restaurant Saturday night before hitting the slopes of Vail Mountain early Sunday. Obama and her two daughters, 9-year-old Sasha and 12-year-old Malia — together with some family friends — are spending the Presidents Day holiday weekend in Vail. President Obama did not make the trip.
The first lady went to Restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail Village on Saturday night, dining on a pickled pumpkin salad with arugula and a braised ancho-chile short rib with hominy wild mushrooms and sauteed kale.

“Yes, it’s true, the first lady dined at our restaurant tonight and seemed to really enjoy it,” chef and owner Kelly Liken said.
The vegetables came from the greenhouse at Brush Creek Elementary School in Eagle as part of the Sowing Seeds program. Liken has helped spearhead the program, which allows local students to grow and harvest their own food and emphasizes the importance of nutrition, agriculture and sustainability. “She was wonderfully gracious and very much interested in what we’re doing in this valley for our kids’ healthy lunch,” Liken said. “She was amazing and — all I can say is she was interested. It was really refreshing to see how interested she really was and how passionate about our kids’ healthy lunches, as well as the movement to eat local here in the Vail Valley.”  (read more)
(Daily Mail) — President Obama has been accused of having double standards after appealing for Americans to sacrifice their holidays just days before his wife and children went on a costly skiing trip.
First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha are on a ‘private family trip’ to Colorado for Presidents’ Day Weekend.  Mrs Obama and Sasha, nine, were pictured waiting in line at the Eagle Bahn gondola to the top of the mountain today.
The First Lady’s cream ski jacket was open, perhaps indicating that temperatures are not as bitter as they are in other parts of the country.  A light snow appeared to be falling on Mrs Obama and her daughter, who herself was clad in fluorescent pink snowboarding pants and a sky blue puff jacket.  Both wore gloves and hats. They were not carrying skis.
The family appear to have flown there on Air Force Two.  They are staying at the upscale Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms start at $650 a night and range up to more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites.  The trip came just days after the President tried to sell his cost-cutting budget to the American people by asking them to stay at home.
‘If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation,’ he said.
While Mr Obama is staying put at the White House, the rest of his family headed to Colorado — rather than visiting slopes closer to Washington in Virginia or Pennsylvania.  Their trip came despite previous criticisms over the family’s extravagant vacations, including a trip last summer to Spain.  (read more)