Obama family moves to Washington this weekend

Jan 1, 2009, 14:23 GMT

Washington - Step by step into the White House: After returning later Thursday to Chicago from vacationing in Hawaii, president-elect Barack Obama and his family are moving this weekend to Washington.

With school opening Monday for daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, the Obamas are to take up temporary residence at the prestigious Hay Adams Hotel, NBC broadcaster reported.

The luxury 19th-century hotel faces the White House from the other end of Lafayette Square, and is named after two of its most famous residents: John Hay, the one-time private assistant to president Abraham Lincoln, and Henry Adams, author and descendant of two of the country's early 19th century presidents - John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

Obama, who will be inaugurated on January 20, had apparently inquired about moving into the official White House guest house, Blair House, a bit earlier than the usual January 15 date for incoming presidents. But the White House said the residence had been booked for some time for those dates.

As a senator since 2004, Obama had only kept a small apartment in Washington that would not have accommodated wife Michelle and the children, who stayed in their Chicago home for the past four years.

Malia and Sasha will attend the exclusive Sidwell Friends, a Quaker school, where Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former president Bill Clinton and secretary-of-state designate Hillary Clinton, went during her father's years in the White House.