On Sunday President Obama will leave Martha’s Vineyard for New Orleans, for the fifth anniversary of its devastation by Hurricane Katrina. On Tuesday, he will travel to Texas, where he will meet with troops, and that night at 8 p.m. he will address the nation about the Iraq war from the Oval Office.

Things will return to normal for the man with the toughest job in the world.

His handicap? It’s the only secret of the presidential vacation. — Mark Alan Lovewell

But he will go back refreshed from 10 days in a place where almost all the faces he saw were smiling and where the prime concern of almost everyone, even the trailing national media, was whether he was having a good time.

Truly. On Tuesday night, when the travelers on the press bus actually got close enough to the President to ask a question — at exactly 9:55 p.m., as he was leaving State Road restaurant — it was about whether he was managing to enjoy himself, despite the rain.

“I’m having a great time,” the President said. “Doing a lot of reading.”

The verdict was duly reported around the country and the world.

The pleasures of the visit were likewise breathlessly recorded: the multiple rounds of golf, the dinners out, the impromptu game of basketball at the Oak Bluffs School on a rainy afternoon, the beach trips, the books and board games, the names of the friends with whom the First Family interacted.

The news cycle must be fed, regardless of the importance of the fare, and if it’s a rainy day on the presidential vacation, then weather becomes a topic of national interest.

First lady Michelle Obama greets crowd gathered at Nancy’s. — Max Bossman

Thus on Tuesday, when assistant press secretary Bill Burton fronted the pack in the temporary news center at the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven, there was concern about how the first family was coping with the inclement conditions.

“They’re having a great time, actually,” Mr. Burton said.

“The rain has not dampened spirits. They’re playing board games. I’ve heard reports of Taboo and Scrabble being played.”

Mr. Burton delivered all this news, poker-faced, then got even more confidential

“This will probably get me fired, but I know that Valerie [Jarrett, the President’s senior adviser and longtime friend] did not do so well in Scrabble against the President.”

(Yesterday, a Google search of “Valerie Jarrett Scrabble” yielded 76,000 references.)

At farm neck on Thursday, the President played another 18 holes of golf with partners Eric Whitaker, Marvin Nicholson and Cyrus Walker. — Sam Low

“They’re also watching some movies, reading some books, and getting some good down time, spending time with each other,” said Mr. Burton.

The traveling media wanted more. Which books? Which movies? Mr. Burton did not know. Had the President made a dent in the new Jonathan Franzen book, Freedom, which he was given during his visit to the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Friday? The President had not.

Next question: “How’s his golf game? What does he shoot?”

Mr. Burton: “I don’t know. I’m not much of a golfer.”

Indeed, if there is one national secret not yet in the possession of the leak merchants at Wikileaks, it is the President’s golf handicap.

Meeting the neighbors Betsey Buddy, Michael V. Buddy and Andrew Grandin at Mink Meadows. — Mark Alan Lovewell

But yesterday came a little snippet of information on that front, courtesy of Joe Fitzgerald, president of the Mink Meadows Golf Club, where Mr. Obama played on Wednesday.

After the President came in from his round, Mr. Fitzgerald presented him with two custom putters, for his daughters, on the assumption they would make a more memorable gift than a Mink Meadows hat and shirt.

Mr. Obama mentioned that his daughter Sasha recently had shot a hole in one, on a minigolf course. Mr. Fitzgerald asked how the President’s own game had gone. Mr. Obama said he had shot a bogey round.

Mr. Fitzgerald assessed the President as a pretty good golfer, considering how little time his job allowed for practice.

Good golfer or not, though, the President clearly enjoys the game, as the photographs from his round attest.

President waves leaving Nancy’s Snack Bar in Oak Bluffs after lunch with family and friends on Wednesday. Next stop: Mink Meadows Golf Club. — Louisa Gould

There was plenty of other circumstantial evidence, too, that the President and his family really were having a good time.

Mr. Obama was more visible this year than last, and apparently more relaxed. There were more impromptu handshakes, high-fives, interactions with the general public.

And matters of state intruded less this year. Last time around, Mr. Obama’s friend and mentor, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, died, and Mr. Obama interrupted his seven-day vacation to attend the funeral.

This time, the only unexpected interruption was a phone call to the new British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to congratulate him on the birth of a new daughter, Florence.

Mr. Obama later tells press: “I’m having a great time.” — Max Bossman

Not that the President can ever entirely escape his office, of course. The call to Mr. Cameron also included discussion of the Middle East. There were the usual daily security briefings, and on Wednesday, a conference call on the state of the economy with the relevant officials.

But it was done remotely. Last year, in the face of shaky financial markets, Mr. Obama felt the need to hold a media conference on-Island to announce the reappointment of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

And this year’s stay on the Vineyard was three days longer.

All in all, the indications are that this was a better vacation. Even the weather, though not great, was better. Last year it was two storms and four inches of rain; this year one storm and three inches.

The forecast is for fine weather for the remainder of the First Family’s Vineyard vacation. No doubt more beach time and golf rounds loom. And a last couple of days, without the weight of the world upon him.