© Frank Bellino/Press-Enterprise/Associated PressFormer president Barack Obama's plane flies over Palm Springs International Airport in California and is diverted to March Air Reserve Base after bad weather prevented him and his family from landing on Jan. 20.
Most presidents begin their post-White House life by returning to their childhood homes or the places where they began their political careers.
Their arrivals often are marked by cheering crowds, speeches from local dignitaries and, in the vast majority of cases, the strains of a high school marching band.
Former president Barack Obama made a different choice. Hours after he witnessed President Trump's swearing in as the 45th commander in chief, Obama was on a plane circling the small airport here. His pending arrival was announced over the same static-filled loudspeaker used to inform weary travelers about flight delays and gate changes.
"Attention, all airport personnel," the loudspeaker voice said, "a ramp freeze is in effect."
A few hundred people in the airport terminal — most of them returning home from golf or spa vacations — edged toward the windows overlooking the tarmac where a convoy of black sport-utility vehicles was forming.
"I heard he wanted to get some warm weather," a retiree on his way home to Canada said of the former president.
"I heard he just wanted a good night's sleep," said a woman who had volunteered for Obama's campaign in 2008.
A former president's return to private life is frequently a reflection of the man. Those first few hours as a citizen can offer an unvarnished and unscripted glimpse into his regrets, insecurities and hopes for the future.
Comment: It's hard to trust a guy like Prince but as that old saying goes "where's there's smoke there's fire"