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Amid growing public opposition, the Honolulu City Council recently dropped a proposal to rename a popular beach in honor of former patron President Obama. Last year, Hawaiis legislature adjourned without acting on a bill that would designate the presidents birthday as a state holiday. To this day, local would-be landmarks such as the apartments where Obama lived are without tangible tributes of the man many here once knew simply as Barry.

Despite the immense pride Hawaiians profess about Obamas historic rise to the presidency, there are few, if any, markers to call attention to his roots here.

Its not like youre going to Mount Vernon, quipped Democratic U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, contrasting the plantation home of the nations first president with a high-rise former residence of its current one.

But what would seem like indifference toward marking Obamas time here is instead the apparent result of a combination of the states humble character and the respect locals say they have for Obama. What they await is a sign of whether Obama returns the affection.

Obama left Hawaii over the weekend after two weeks of what has become the first familys traditional end-of-the-year vacation here, but such visits increasingly appear less like homecomings. Obama attends luaus and plays golf with old friends, but he and his family stay at a rented home. He hasn't lived here since he left for college and few expect him to return full time when he leaves the White House. He only occasionally interacts with the public, and doesnt return to the sites of childhood exploits.

In turn, residents mostly leave him alone, acknowledging his desire to use his yearly visits to recharge, yet still seeing him as one of their own.

It doesn't matter where you live. It's where your heart is, said Mira Secretaria, who was buying a birthday cake for her niece recently at the Baskin-Robbins where Obama worked as a teenager, just blocks from the hospital where he was born and two of the apartments he spent time in as a child. I never thought of him as from the mainland. I always thought of him as from Hawaii.

The debate about Hawaiis place in Obamas story is of a piece with a larger one that's playing out as Obama stares down what he calls the fourth quarter of his time in office. History will note his place as the first black president of a nation with a fraught racial history, but what remains to be seen is how it will view his policymaking and politicking.

With an eye toward cultivating his legacy, Obama made major moves in recent weeks on climate, immigration and foreign policy, before retreating to the state where he was born.

Here, says Neil Abercrombie, the former governor and longtime congressman, Obamas experiences formulated his values.

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Obama at ease, if not at home, in native Hawaii