Vacation with the Obamas on Martha's Vineyard

Okay, so you're probably not going to get anywhere near the Obamas on their planned August getaway to Martha's Vineyard, as the Boston Globe reports, but it's hard to imagine a nicer place to be in late summer.

No word yet on where the Obamas will be staying while on the Vineyard, but a good pick for presidential accommodations could be the newly renovated Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown. (Sidenote: I visited last September, and on a sunset cruise of the harbor on the hotel's restored center-console wooden boat Stardust, spotted Walter Cronkite's house, and Walter reading in his living room. R.I.P.)

Besides its many large suites and private cottages for staff, the Harbor View has liberal street cred, since the owner, Scout Capital Real Estate, has a focus on sustainability. It's replacing single-use plastic bottles with reusable bottles and installing water stations throughout the property, for example, using solar heat for its pool, and during the renovation, donated furnishings, cabinetry, appliances to Habitat for Humanity, among other charities.

Scout's also got a nifty sustainability laboratory property on Esther Island off Nantucket where it's playing with other green technologies that might have use at its hotel properties, which includes generating all of its own electricity through a combination of solar panels and a power-generating wind turbine. Of course, wind turbines have been something of a political third-rail in these parts, so probably best for Obama not to mention that during his stay.