After weekend getaway, Obamas leave Palm Springs

After a rainy weekend getaway, former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama boarded a private jet at the Palm Springs International Airport on Monday morning.

A Desert Sun photographer saw the former first lady board the jet but did not spot the former president. Tom Nolan, the airport's executive director, said Barack Obama also departed Monday morning.

The Obamas have signed a lease on a house in Washington, D.C., but may not be headed straight back to their new home in the nation's capital.

A flight-tracking website showed the plane the Obamas boarded Monday headed from Palm Springs to the British Virgin Islands.

The plane carried branding for Virgin Galactic, the spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson,  who owns an island in the British Virgin Islands and built a resort there.

Virgin Islands News Online, a news outlet serving the Virgin Islands, published a photo of the Obamas after landing at their destination.

Shortly after 10 a.m., a motorcade of nine cars drove out of Thunderbird Heights, the ritzy and private neighborhood in Rancho Mirage the Obamas stayed in this weekend and on previous visits to the valley. They visited Palm Springs after attending the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on Friday. The motorcade arrived at about 10:30 a.m., entering the airport at Signature Flight Support.

A Riverside County Sheriff's Department vehicle blocked traffic in both directions on Highway 111 as the motorcade headed to the airport, allowing the caravan to turn left onto the highway from Thunderbird Heights unobstructed.

The traffic blockade lasted only a few minutes, with seven or eight cars having to wait on each side of the highway for the motorcade to pass.

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Obama's motorcade visited the Thunderbird Country Club gym, where the former president has been known to exercise, on Sunday and Monday mornings. He spent about five hours on Saturday at Porcupine Creek, the walled compound of Oracle founder Larry Ellison where Obama has golfed on several occasions.

Unlike the former president's previous six trips to the valley, the weekend brought heavy rains and wind that kept the Obamas indoors for much of the visit.

Dozens of people in Palm Springs waited around the airport for hours on Friday to watch the former president and first lady arrive, but a storm system diverted the Obamas’ flight to the March Air Reserve Base near RiversideThey landed around 5:45 p.m. Friday.

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White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest announced a week ago that Palm Springs would be the Obamas' first stop after leaving office, pointing out the good weather.

“The president vowed to take his family to a destination that is warmer than Washington, D.C. on Friday and Palm Springs fits the bill," Earnest said at a Tuesday news conference at the White House. "This is a community that the president has visited on a number of occasions as president of the United States. He and his family have enjoyed the time they've spent there in the past. And they're looking to traveling there on Friday."

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.