One minute you’re eating Skyline, the next you’re schmoozing with the President of the United States.

Harrison’s Shelley Miller, her kids, Charlie and Alexandra, and friend Rylie Guthrie were at the Skyline on Seventh and Vine streets in downtown Cincy Monday, July 16, when the Secret Service swooshed into the joint and locked the doors.

When one family, asked what was going on, a Secret Serviceman announced, “You are going to get the surprise of a lifetime,” said Miller.

Photo By Shelley Miller/Harrison Press President Barack Obama spent considerable time chatting with three Harrison kids when he visited Cincinnati last week. Charlie Miller, his sister, Alexandra, center, and their friend, Rylie Guthrie, got more attention from the chief executive of the United States than any other people in the restaurant. President Obama fist bumped Charlie for receiving the President's Education Award for academic excellence while a student at Whitewater Valley.

OK with that, said Miller, whose husband, Mike, is a police officer.

A half hour later, President Barack Obama, the press, and more men in black emerged on the scene.

The first table President Obama approached was the one occupied by the Harrison group.

The Harrison folks were not on a political quest, but on their way to check out the newly revamped Washington Park, when they stopped for lunch.

“It truly was just amazing. It is hard to describe. When he walked in, it was wow! Even though they had checked our bags and this and that, I still didn’t believe it until he walked in, and right away, he said, ‘I know what I want.’”

The president, who ordered takeout, must have been hungry because he went with a four-way with beans and two cheese conies with mustard. He ordered for the agents and at least one reporter, but declined the manager’s freebie offer, paying out of pocket, said Miller.

“He said he ordered with no onions because he had to talk with several people that day,” she said.

“As soon as he walked over to the table, I actually jumped up, and backed away from the table. He went to the kids first, they were the closest to him, shaking their hands, so I captured that picture.”

President Obama asked the group what they were doing downtown, and commented that the visit to the park should be fun, said Miller.

“And that’s when I said I wish I knew you were going to be here because Charlie received the President’s Education Award and a pen from you. He looked at Charlie, and said, ‘Good job, my man, and then fist bumped him.” Charlie is a seventh-grader at Harrison Junior School.

“I was awestruck,” said Charlie. “It’s hard to explain. … I just couldn’t help from smiling. He talked like he knew us.”

Rylie went for it, asking the president to sign her Skyline bib. He procured a marker but decided not to sign the bib because of possible smearing, and instead signed a presidential card for the Whitewater Valley fifth-grader.

“I thought it would be cool having his signature, so I asked him and I knew he was going to answer, yes,” she said.
Alexandra, also a Whitewater Valley fifth-grader, echoed her mom’s “amazing” comment.

“We were having an ordinary lunch at Skyline, then a bunch of people walked in, and then the president,” said Alexandra. “I was excited, but I did not know what to think.”

Although the president visited every occupied table, he spent more time with the Harrison contingent than with any other group, said Miller.

The Millers, who have a hard time keeping out of Skyline, got the celebrity treatment the next day when they visited the Harrison Skyline, she said.