As you can see in the photo above (White House Photo, by Pete Souza; public domain), President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have been hob-nobbing with European royalty. That's Queen Elizabeth in between them.

The President just got back to Washington DC after an 8-day trip where he visited 6 countries, was a participant in 25 meetings and 2 town hall style q&a sessions, plus 8 press conferences. He also attended 3 major summits and belted out 2 speeches.

The President's first stop on the Europe trip was the G20 Summit in London. The Obamas arrived in London on March 31, 2009. They met the Queen on April 1. On April 3, he was in France, where Michelle Obama made much more news than the President. The fashion showdown between the First Ladies of the United States and France was probably considered to be a bigger deal by the media than WWIII.

The President attended the NATO Summit hosted by Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany, on April 3-4. Then on to the European Union summit April 5 in Prague, Czech Republic, before ending the Euri tour in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey on April 6.

From there, he was supposed to head back home to Washington DC, but went off to Iraq for a previously unannounced visit.

In this U.S. Air Force photo taken by Staff Sgt. Amanda Currier (public domain, via larryzou@ flickr), Staff Sgt. Matthew Smith guards Air Force One on the flightline April 7 at Sather Air Base, Iraq.

President Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of nearly 1,500 service members, government civilians and contractors at Al Faw Palace at Camp Victory, Iraq, during a surprise detour visit to Iraq on his way back from Europe. This was his first viosit to Iraq since taking office.

Now, you might be wondering why you're still reading this. I thank you for not dozing off, but there's a point here. I was going to do this during the Presidential campaign last year, but it was virtually impossible to keep track of how many places he was visiting last year. I tried to put together a list, but I just couldn't find any website or resource which listed, by date, every place that candidate Obama visited.

After Jan 20, when he became the 44th President, it's a lot easier, but President Obama is still traveling much more than any of his predecessors. What I'm leading up to is that we need to have a central one-stop resource which tracks and records every place President Obama has visited. So I'll be adding parts to the Obama Tracker, and we'll keep it going for the next 8 years of his Presidency. Think big... Hubs you can believe in. :)

So anyway, before his Europe tour, the President visited Canada on Feb 19, 2009 as his first overseas tour of the Presidency. And his wanderbug isn't limited to foreign nations. In this brief perios, he's managed visits on Feb 9 to Elkhart, Indiana and on Feb 10 to Fort Myers, Florida to gin up support for the stimulus bill. On Feb 12, he was in Springfield, Illinois for LIncoln's 200th birthday celebrations.

Feb 14 was Valentine's day, so the Obamas turned the trip into a Chicago vacation, with a stayover at their house in the Kenwood-Hyde Park area for the weekend. Valentine's Day dinner was at the Table Fifty-Two restaurant at 52 W. Elm St. in Chicago.

In March, he managed to escape for a 2-day visit (March 19-20) to California to promote the budget proposals. His tour included a visit to the 'Garage of the Future' at the Edison Plant in Pomona, CA.

He's scheduled to appear at graduation ceremonies in Notre Dame and Arizona State University. He'll also be enjoying fine Carribean weather and food in Trinidad & Tobago from April 17-19 for the Summit of the Americas.