America´s First Lady Michelle Obama has added another holiday to her summer schedule, with a trip to Spain with daughter Sasha, 9, next month, the White House announced yesterday.

The travel is being billed by the White House as a “private mother-daughter trip with longtime family friends.” The additional vacation travel comes when Malia, 12, will be going off to overnight camp for the first time.

While the trip is being described as “private,” “while in Spain, Mrs. Obama will pay an official visit to Their Majesties King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia of Spain at their invitation,” the White House said, with the activities to be closed to the press.

That the East Wing is announcing the trip is a welcome improvement. I´m all for giving Mrs. Obama and the kids lots of privacy — but when they start hanging out with heads of state, well, that´s worth letting the public know. In June 2009, Mrs. Obama´s office declined to disclose in advance Mrs. Obama´s travel to London and Paris where the first lady and her daughters visited the French president at the Elysee Palace and the wife of a now former British prime minister at No. 10 Downing St.

Mrs. Obama will have no public schedule between this week and the end of August. She has several vacations lined up and some summer trips already taken:

On the weekend of Aug. 14, the first family weekends on the Florida Gulf coast, part of an appeal by President Obama and the first lady to encourage gulf tourism in the wake of the BP oil spill. Between Aug. 19 and 29, the first family will vacation on Martha´s Vineyard, where they spent part of last summer. No dates have been announced for the Spain trip.

The summer started with a Memorial Day weekend trip to Chicago; the family went to the Camp David presidential retreat before July 4; they weekended in Maine, sightseeing in Acadia National Park, departing on July 16 and returning Sunday afternoon July 18. Mrs. Obama took her daughters and her mom, Marian Robinson, to Los Angeles in June. In March, over spring break, Mrs. Obama with her daughters, mom and some pals hit New York for a round of Broadway shows.

Since many of you ask when there are stories about presidential vacation travel: Mrs. Obama always flies on a U.S. government plane; she pays personal expenses herself. Her friends are not flying with her. She will travel with “minimal” staff.

And catching up on the home front: President Obama said in an ABC interview that Malia and Sasha get an allowance and “they´re starting to get old enough where they may be able earn some money baby-sitting.”

via First lady planning vacation to Spain :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Lynn Sweet.