The Bidens’ summer vacation in the Santa Ynez Valley will end Sunday as they return to the grind — or at least the East Coast.
President Joe Biden, his wife Jill and other family members arrived early Tuesday morning aboard Air Force One at the Santa Barbara Airport. They traveled by motorcade to the valley.
The Bidens have stayed at the Santa Ynez Valley ranch of family friend and political donor Joe Kiani, as Noozhawk reported last week about the visit planned to span from Tuesday through Sunday.
On Saturday, the president attended Mass at Old Mission Santa Ines, where a heavy law enforcement presence could be seen as the 5 p.m. regular weekly service started.
A crowd, including tourists, gathered to watch the motorcade arrive as activists representing pro-Palestine and Donald Trump supporters were active in the valley on Saturday.
The visit will wrap up Sunday with the president and first lady set to the leave the Santa Ynez Valley mid-morning, departing Santa Ynez at 10:35 a.m. and leaving what’s referred to as the Santa Ynez Landing Zone at 11 a.m.
Their departure from Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for 11:25 a.m.
Air Force One will deliver the Bidens to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, before they end up at their final destination of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Lompoc Valley residents spotted Air Force One flying to Vandenberg mid-week.
While the sprawling base doesn’t have any aircraft regularly stationed there, it boasts a 3-mile-long runway built during the West Coast space shuttle program.
Vandenberg never saw a space shuttle launch due to the program’s cancellation after the Challenger explosion, but several facilities built for the manned space program remain.
Other than a few visits around the valley — including shopping trips Wednesday — they have stayed out of the spotlight during the vacation that overlapped with the Democratic National Convention.
The valley’s visitors arrived hours after both the president and first lady spoke Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Since then, the president reportedly has conducted a few phone calls to world leaders, approved disaster declarations and issued a written statement ahead of Ukraine Independence Day.
On Thursday, the Bidens called Vice President Kamala Harris before she accepted the Democratic nomination on the final night of the convention, saying in a social media post “we can’t wait to watch her accept this historic nomination.”
Harris and her running mate Tim Walz “will inspire a generation and lead us into the future,” the post added.