Kerry and wife embrace opulence

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

From a sailing mecca to a ski resort, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, enjoy the trappings of their wealth in at least five homes and vacation getaways across the country valued at nearly $33 million.

Some are private escapes for the family, while others serve as prime spots to host fund-raisers and exclusive gatherings for wealthy donors. All reflect the couple's status -- he is a four-term Massachusetts senator, she is heiress to the $500 million family ketchup fortune.

Each home has a place in the family's life, with its own history and mission, from the preppy island of Nantucket and Boston's Beacon Hill to the Pittsburgh countryside, the Idaho mountains and the nation's capital.

Mr. Kerry is on a weeklong break from the campaign at the home in the wooded mountains of Ketchum, Idaho. Located near the banks of the Big Wood River, the nearly $5 million house is a reassembled barn, originally built in England in 1485 and brought to Idaho by Mrs. Kerry's late husband, H. John Heinz III. The Pennsylvania Republican senator died in a plane crash in 1991.

The Heinz family has had the house since 1966 and traditionally spends time there in August and during the Christmas holidays -- often throwing a New Year's Eve party capped with fireworks.

While Ketchum provides a respite from politics, the tony Beacon Hill brownstone in Boston has been a more frequent campaign way station for Mr. Kerry and his wife. It is the only residence that is theirs as a couple. And, assessed at nearly $7 million, it is the residence that Mr. Kerry mortgaged last year to finance more than $6 million in loans to his campaign.

Their other homes, ranging in value from more than $3 million to nearly $9.2 million, belong to Mrs. Kerry and predate her 1995 marriage to the Massachusetts senator. Several are still listed under the name of her late husband.

Formerly part of a convent, the five-story, 12-room Boston town house -- with six fireplaces, a rooftop deck and an elevator -- is Mr. Kerry's main residence. It is where he is registered to vote and is located blocks from the Statehouse.