By Liz King
Staff Writer
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AMESBURY — Meeting one president while on vacation in Maine? A fortuitous coincidence. Meeting another two decades later? Someone has got some luck on his side.
A year ago, former Amesbury residents Jeff and Doris Picard, who now live in Exeter, N.H., started planning their July vacation to Bar Harbor, Maine. Their son, Josh, had given them a five-night hotel stay for Christmas.
What they didn't know was that this vacation would be one for the ages. This souvenir? Not a shot glass or a magnet, rather, a photo and conversation with the president of the United States.
"We had no idea we were in the same area," said Jeff Picard, 57. "What are the chances of him going to Bar Harbor?"
Picard began catching on when Bar Harbor Regency Hotel employees started sprucing up the hotel, and they were asked to move from the fourth floor, which houses a VIP suite, to the first floor.
"As the days progressed, Secret Service SUVs were showing up," Picard said. "Come Friday, 100 Secret Service people were there. Watching it unfold was so exciting."
Though they planned to leave July 16, the Picards were able to snag another day at the hotel. On Friday, they decided to go to Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park, as fog had prevented the trip earlier in the week. Soon after, the black SUVs began arriving, and the road was closed to the general public. A group of seven people was left atop the mountain and were all scanned by the Secret Service.
Shortly thereafter, a string of cars, a press bus and five black SUVs came up the road. President Obama came out of one, and after meeting park rangers and looking around the area, walked over to the group of visitors with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters.
"The first lady walked over to Doris and asked her if we're vacationing up here," Picard said. "She said we were, that we'd been here about a week and that we were staying at the same hotel as the Obamas. (Michelle Obama) put her hands on her cheeks and asked if they'd caused any inconvenience to us, and apologized if they had."
At that time, President Obama walked over to Picard, "arms out, with a big smile," and asked how he was doing, what his name was, where he was from and what he did for work. Though his whole family voted for Obama, Picard said he and the president didn't talk politics, but they did talk about Picard's business, Jeff Picard Building and Remodeling in Exeter.
"The president was asking the American family how they are doing," Picard said. "(The Obamas are) very genuine people. He was talking to me on a first-name basis and was so easy to talk to."
Picard also lent the Obama family his binoculars, and Doris Picard got pictures with them.
After the encounter, the Picards were interviewed by various newspapers and informed that they were photographed by the White House photographer. And Doris Picard made sure to call their two sons, Josh and Craig, who were thrilled that their parents got to meet the president.
"Afterwards, I'm thinking, 'I just had a six-minute conversation with the most powerful person in the Free World," Picard said. "We were just hopeful to get a glance or shake his hand at the hotel. When you have a conversation with the president of the United States, and he's listening to you ... it makes you feel pretty good."
This isn't the first time the Picards have met a president while on vacation in Maine. Around 1990, the couple had gone to a relative's pool party in Kennebunk, and Jeff Picard decided to go to Kennebunk High School to play tennis, when four black SUVs rolled up. Out walked George Bush Sr. in jeans, a T-shirt, a baseball hat and a baseball glove to play in a softball game going on at the adjacent field, Picard said.
Picard was able to watch the former president get up to bat and run the bases and then got his autograph on a tennis ball afterward.
"It was pure chance that I happened to go there and play tennis," he said.
Of his most recent brush with a president, Picard said it was also pure coincidence — the fact that they were at the same hotel as the Obamas, that they got an extra day to stay and went to the mountain at the right time before the road was closed. It was also a chance encounter when he went for coffee the next morning and met the rest of the Obama family — their dog Bo.
"If you had tried to plan this, you could have never made it happen — the moons and stars all lined up on this one," Picard said. "All in all, it was very enjoyable and definitely memorable, for sure. I'll never forget that day."
