Is this visit to Seattle and Ann’s friend the second visit she took with Obama when he was a baby? I’ve also seen it said that she was there when he was a tiny newborn, so he may have been born in Washington state. So are there two separate visits?
No it isn’t the second visit Ann paid to Washington state. Some speculate that she went to Seattle for a visit with Jr, returned to Hawaii and dropped Jr off and then returned to Seattle. She registered for courses at University of Washington and remained in Washington from the time of her visit until she returned to Hawaii in early 1963 with Jr. She lived in apt 110 1427 Alexander St which had been rented for her by her parents and then moved in with her parents when she registered for spring 1963 classes at UH at Manoa. Ann only made the one trip to Seattle and remained in Seattle until she returned to Hawaii. She had Jr with her all that time. When she made the trip she was staying with a friend of her mother and borrowed her mother’s friend’s car to drive out for the infamous visit with Susan Blake. Two weeks later Maxine Box visited Ann at the friend’s home but no name has ever been given for that woman.
One clue to the fact that she remained in Washington is the lack of infant and baby photos aside from one which was released after Madelyn Dunham died. The photo is a professional one with only Jr in it and I guesstimate he was 6 to 8 months old when it was taken.
We still don’t know exactly when Ann arrived in Seattle with Jr but we know she didn’t know how to change diapers and we also know Susan Blake described him as “very new and very pink”. Could Ann have had Jr in a home for unwed mothers in Canada which wasn’t as racist in 1961?(A white woman giving birth in Seattle in 1961 to a colored baby would be placed in a segregated maternity ward) It would explain her not knowing how to change diapers since contact between mothers and babies in such homes was not encouraged.Travel between the U.S. and Canada was extremely easy at that time as well, when the border guards would ask to see the driver’s licence but pay no attention to passengers. We also know from Susan Blake’s remarks that Jr wasn’t very old since his melanin hadn’t become apparent yet.