As Republicans spilled into Cleveland to nominate Donald Trump as their presidential candidate, 2012 nominee Mitt Romney had an equally crucial task: entertaining his grandchildren at his lakeside summer house in New Hampshire.
US Senator John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican nominee who has endorsed Trump despite the latter's insults, attended an ice-cream party with his wife, Cindy, and volunteers in his re-election campaign in Prescott, Arizona.
"Working out of my office in Miami this week," former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in February, said in an email to Reuters.
Bush had been the most active in attacking Trump on the campaign trail and has said he will not be voting for either Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton on November 8.
His brother, former president George W. Bush and father, former president George H.W. Bush, were also not at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
These are some of the big names from a long list of prominent Republicans who are not venturing this week to Cleveland, where Trump is to be formally nominated on Thursday after a rough-and-tumble Republican primary fight that ripped wounds in the party that have yet to heal.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort told reporters the convention is a "healing time" for the party and that Republicans will leave Cleveland united, but he criticised Ohio Governor John Kasich for not participating in an event in his own backyard.
And Republicans have moved past the Bush era, he added.
"They're part of the past. We're dealing with the future," he said.
Kasich, a one-time rival of Trump's for the nomination, is making the rounds in Cleveland without endorsing Trump or speaking at the convention.
Some of the party's best diverse talent was missing from Cleveland or limiting their participation, including US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, an Indian-American.
Rubio was in Fort Myers, Florida, talking about how to tackle toxic algae polluting some of the state's waterways. He is to deliver a short videotaped message to the convention on Wednesday, however.
Haley is to speak at a breakfast for the South Carolina delegation in Cleveland on Wednesday.
Romney, who has been a prominent voice among the anti-Trump forces, was in New Hampshire with 36 members of his family for their annual summer gathering, a spokeswoman said.
Former vice president Dick Cheney was in Wyoming helping the congressional campaign of his daughter, Liz Cheney, and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who was talked about as a possible vice presidential running mate for Trump, was at home in Palo Alto, California.
"Writing her book about democracy!" said her chief of staff, Georgia Godfrey.
US Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, an eye doctor, was providing free eye care in Paducah, Kentucky. US Senator Lindsey Graham was in his home state of South Carolina for the week.
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