This is Google's cache of http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/florida/digdocs/086294.htm. Google's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web. The page may have changed since that time. Click here for the current page without highlighting. Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content. These search terms have been highlighted: boca grande bayard sharpe FLORIDA Published Wednesday, December 27, 2000, in the Miami Herald Bush makes a post-election getaway and -- of course -- it's here in Florida Vacation follows tradition for state BY STEVE BOUSQUET [EMAIL PROTECTED] TALLAHASSEE -- When he stepped off a plane in southwest Florida on Tuesday afternoon, President-elect George W. Bush did his small part to carry on an American tradition: a presidential getaway to Florida. >From Truman to Clinton, presidents have been coming south for the same reasons as many of their constituents: golf, good fishing, sun and relaxation. The difference, of course, is that presidents can arrive in the luxury of Air Force One or private jet, not a noisy minivan -- and they don't have to wait for a tee time. President-elect Bush picked up his parents in Houston, flew to Fort Myers and met other family members, including brother Jeb, for a brief vacation at a spot that has long been a Bush family favorite: the exclusive and old-money Gasparilla Inn. As his 19-year-old daughter Jenna rested after an emergency appendectomy, President-elect Bush arrived for a round of golf with his brothers and father and what he called ``a little relaxation, a lot of phone calls. . . . I've got a lot of transition work to do.'' Work is not the first thought that comes to mind when one reaches Boca Grande, a tiny island on Florida's southwest coast between Sarasota and Fort Myers. Jeb and Columba Bush were expected to stay at Boca Grande for most of this week, a spokeswoman said. ``He plans to do some golfing and fishing and relaxing, and I'm sure he's probably reading e-mails as well,'' said press secretary Liz Hirst. ``He's never totally away.'' The Gasparilla Inn was built in 1913 by a prominent phosphate manufacturer, who discovered that wealthy northerners were drawn in wintertime to the plentiful tarpon offshore. ``All these big fancy rich people with money started going down there,'' said Stan Fulford, researcher for the Fort Myers Historical Society. ``And one of the things that attracted a lot of rich people is that there are a lot of tarpon all around the place.'' Boca Grande -- Spanish for ``large mouth,'' a reference to the area's deep-water port with access to the Gulf of Mexico -- offers the abundant fishing and quiet the Bushes like. George W. Bush's favorite retreat is his ranch in Crawford, Texas, but Fulford says he expects the new president to be a recurring visitor to southwest Florida. ``It's a place where he would visit because of the family ties, and, don't forget, his daddy has been coming here for quite a while,'' Fulford said. ``It's a very private place. It's got a toll bridge which could very easily be closed off, so the Secret Service doesn't have to be worried.'' Owned by Bayard Sharpe, a family friend, the Gasparilla was where then-President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush came in November 1992 to relax and assuage their anguish over losing to Bill Clinton. That wasn't the first time a secluded Florida spot provided restorative benefits for a leader or leader-to-be of the free world. For Harry Truman -- clad in a tropical print shirt and carrying a walking stick -- it was a morning stroll through Key West. For John F. Kennedy, it was a dip in the ocean and a suntan at his family's walled Palm Beach compound. Legend has it that Richard Nixon first learned about the Watergate break-in while resting at his ``winter White House'' on Key Biscayne, next door to his long-time friend ``Bebe'' Rebozo. While Bill Clinton has never had a permanent vacation home in Florida, he has never had any problem hanging his hat here, from the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables to golfer Greg Norman's house in Jupiter to White Oak Plantation, a big-game preserve in Yulee. Truman spent two weeks in Key West after his exhausting but triumphant 1948 campaign against Thomas Dewey that confounded pundits from coast to coast. In a 1971 oral history interview available on the Truman Library's web site, Truman counselor Clark Clifford remembered those two weeks as a special moment of morning volleyball games, leisurely lunches and evenings spent around the poker table. ``A time of complete relaxation,'' Clifford said. ``We just had one happy day after another.'' Truman visited the ``Little White House'' in Key West 11 times, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower recuperated there from a 1956 heart attack. This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press. Copyright 2000 Miami Herald -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001 7:14 AM Subject: NYTimes.com Article: President Bush Wants Horse Breeder as Envoy in London February 15, 2001 President Bush Wants Horse Breeder as Envoy in London By MARC LACEY ASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — William S. Farish, a multimillionaire horse breeder who is a longtime friend of the Bush family, is expected to be nominated to the plum assignment of United States ambassador to Britain, administration officials said today. Mr. Farish, 62, is chairman of the board of Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is run every year, and a devoted Republican fund-raiser whose family has provided the Bushes with a Florida vacation house for years. His nomination would follow the pattern of presidents of sending a political benefactor to the embassy in London. Administration officials said that President Bush had decided on Mr. Farish and that his name had been sent to the British government. Ambassadorships require Senate confirmation. Mr. Farish would bring to the job a longstanding relationship with Queen Elizabeth II, who is an avid horse breeder. On four occasions, the queen has visited Mr. Farish's stables in Kentucky, staying with Mr. Farish and his family each time. The current ambassador to Britain is Philip Lader, a close friend of former President Bill Clinton and major Democratic contributor. If Vice President Al Gore had won the presidential election, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic fund-raiser, was prepared to move to be ambassador to the Court of St. James. Mr. Farish's ties to the Bushes run deep. For years, the Bush family has retreated to a waterfront compound in Boca Grande, Fla., owned by Bayard Sharp, an heir to the DuPont fortune and a relative of Mr. Farish. Former President George Bush went there after he lost to Mr. Clinton in 1992, and his son vacationed there late last year after his disputed election was finally resolved. A native of Houston, Mr. Farish is the founder of an investment firm called W. S. Farish & Co. That firm managed the trust that the elder Bush set up when he became Ronald Reagan's vice president. Mr. Farish has also run Lane's End Farm, a thoroughbred stable in Versailles, Ky. And it was Mr. Farish who gave the Bushes their English springer spaniel, Millie. Mr. Farish's daughter, Laura Farish-Chadwick, is a personal assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne. During former President Bush's term, she worked as an administrative assistant in the White House scheduling office. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
