President Barack Obama promised to take his family someplace warm after he leaves office at the end of this week.
Palm Springs it is.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed the family's plans Tuesday to visit the Southern California desert resort community about 100 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
"The First Family is looking forward to flying to Palm Springs, California on Friday," Earnest said during his final press briefing before his boss leaves the White House. "The president vowed to take his family to a destination that is warmer than Washington, and Palm Springs fits the bill."
The forecast actually includes rain Friday and Saturday in Palm Springs with temperatures in the 50s as another storm system takes aim on Southern California. Similar conditions are expected in the nation's capital.
They'll use the presidential airplane, but it won't be referred to as Air Force One because that designation only applies when the current president is on board.
Rumors of the Obamas visiting the Coachella Valley surfaced Monday.
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The Obamas aren't expected to have public events while in California. It's unclear how long the Obamas will be in the Palm Springs area before returning to the Washington, D.C., area, as private citizens. They plan to remain in D.C. while youngest daughter Sasha finishes high school. Her sister, Malia, graduated last year.
But rumors have long circulated that the Coachella Valley could become their ultimate home. Obama has made multiple visits to the area, both on official business as well as golfing with his boyhood friends in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and La Quinta.
The vacation will follow a busy final few weeks, which included a farewell address to the nation Tuesday night. The biggest broadcast networks have all been granted interviews, culminating in a full-circle talk Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." The History network airs a two-hour interview special on Sunday and next week CNN shows its own two-hour film, "The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House."
Obama also gave lengthy interviews to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for a Vanity Fair feature and to Jann Wenner for his 10th Rolling Stone magazine cover. First Lady Michelle Obama gave Oprah Winfrey an exit interview and she appeared on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Wednesday.
"I don't remember (an exit) that has been as orchestrated and fulsome as this one," said David Gergen, co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School and an aide to four presidents.
Obama was the 10th president to deliver a formal farewell address, and his speech in Chicago was the first one before a public audience, said Gleaves Whitney, director of Grand Valley State University's Center for Presidential Studies. The first three farewell messages weren't speeches at all -- they were written and submitted to the press, Whitney said. Harry Truman began the modern tradition of televised addresses, which have been intermittently followed.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
