Secret's Out: First Lady's Incognito Shopping Forays

The First Lady is also a first-rate escape artist who sometimes flees the confines of the White House for secret shopping forays, Michelle Obama divulged in a TV interview broadcast Wednesday.

"I do that more frequently than people realize, and it's amazing how people don't recognize you," Obama told NBC television's "Today Show."

"They don't expect to see me at Starbucks or at Chipotle's," she said, naming two popular chain eateries she has frequented incognito.

"They're looking right through you. They don't know it's me," said Obama, who made headlines when the media jumped all over reports of a recent stealth trip to a Target department store in Virginia.

She told NBC however that it had not been a one-off outing and that her undercover shopping outings help to maintain a sense of normalcy in her life.

With the help of a baseball cap and sunglasses, the First Lady said she almost always goes unrecognized.

Even when traveling with Bo, the famous first dog, many fellow shoppers fail to figure out who she is.

"I actually took Bo to Petco," Obama said, referring to a popular pet supplies store.

"The cashier asked me, 'Oh what kind of dog is that?' He didn't recognize us because he didn't expect that we would be in Petco," she said.

She said that she sometimes takes daughters Sasha, 10, and Malia, 13, on her forays.

"My secret's out, but we try to sneak out as much as possible and it helps to keep our kids' lives normal," Obama said.