President Barack Obama is spending his first day of vacation in Hawaii at the golf course after arriving early this morning on Air Force 1.

The president left his Kailua vacation home at 12:22 p.m. and arrived at Marine Corps Base Hawaii a few minutes later.

Obama is golfing with White House travel aides Joe Paulsen and Mike Brush; and high school friend Bobby Titcomb.

The president and his family landed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam shortly after 2 a.m., more than an hour after originally scheduled.

The late hour precluded the president’s usual routine of exchanging greetings with state officials and shaking hands with soldiers and their families.

Admiral Harry B. Harris, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command and his wife greeted the president, who offered just a quick wave as he deplaned side by side with daughter Sasha, followed closely by wife Michelle and elder daughter Malia, on his way to the awaiting motorcade.

The Obamas stopped in California en route from Washington, D.C. to meet with the families of 14 people slain in the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino.

The carnage here took place when Syed Rizwan Farook, an American citizen, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani national who came to the United States on a fiancée visa, entered a training session and holiday party for county workers and opened fire. The couple later died in a shootout with the police.

Before the attack, Malik had declared her allegiance to the Islamic State, investigators have said. The massacre, coming after an Islamic State attack in Paris last month that killed 130 people, has helped drag down Mr. Obama’s approval ratings on handling terrorism.

Obama said the meetings in a high school library were “so moving” because the families were so representative of the country.

“You had people from every background, every faith. Some described loved ones who had come to this country as immigrants, others who had lived in the area all their lives, all of them extraordinarily proud of the work they were doing to keep people healthy and safe” as employees of the San Bernardino County health department, he said. “As difficult as this time is for them and for the entire community, they’re also representative of the strength and the unity and the love that exists in this community and in this country.”

Before leaving Washington, D.C. on Friday, the president reflected on the events of the past year and sounded nothing like a lame duck as he heads into his final year in office.

“Since taking this office, I have never been more optimistic about a year ahead than I am right now,” Obama said.“In 2016, I am going to leave it all on the field.”

As usual, the president has no public appearances scheduled for his 16-day stay. However, if he keeps to his holiday habits, it is likely that he will bide his time in the islands golfing with his old Punahou friends at the Kaneohe Klipper golf course, working out at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, dining at Nobu and other restaurants, and spending Christmas Day with service members and their families.

The Obamas typicaly keep a low profile on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, often staying in at their rented Kailua compound.

For Michelle Obama, the Hawaii holiday is something of a working vacation as she spends part of Christmas Eve fielding calls about Santa Claus’ trip around the world as tracked by NORAD.

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The Associated Press and the New York Times contributed to this story.