I was a United States congressman and traveled to Spain with a trade delegation. I invited my younger brother Glenn---who was about 13 at the time---to join me on the trip but didn't tell him we would be traveling with the President on Air Force One. I also didn't tell him that we had been invited to join President Biden for breakfast in the Andalusian city of Granada at the famed Alhambra Palace Hotel.
We arrived at the hotel and as we entered I saw President Biden sitting alone at a table at the back of the restaurant in front of an open French window overlooking the Generalife gardens.
Glenn and I walked towards the President who stood up happy to greet us. He asked me who the handsome young gentleman was and I introduced Glenn comically to the President as "George W. Bush," to which everybody got the joke and had a good ice-breaking laugh.
Then, in a more serious tone, I said "Glenn, I’d like to introduce you to the President of the United States, Joseph Biden."
The two shook hands and President Biden asked if we had already eaten breakfast and invited us to join him. Glenn said he wasn’t hungry, but President Biden insisted and signaled for Glenn to sit in the chair beside him.
The President began cutting a piece of his baked potato instructing me to go and find a small plate. I went to a small pantry where there was a coffee machine and I grabbed a large saucer and brought it back where President Biden put half of his baked potato onto the saucer and gave it to Glenn.
Just then, three or four of President Biden‘s grandchildren came in to join their grandfather for breakfast, one of them, a portly young girl, said that Glenn could share a chair with her.
Glenn became quite nervous and wanted to leave, but I insisted that we stayed and take advantage of this unique once in a lifetime opportunity.
Later, one of Biden’s grandsons was trying to intimidate Glenn and the two nearly got into a physical altercation, which I broke up by standing between the two boys.
The young man then came face-to-face with me and challenged me and I pinned him down on a bench with his hands behind his back in a maneuver I learned while working in the psychiatric ward of the children’s hospital many years earlier. My gentle but firm control of the situation earned my respect from the boy, Glenn and the President, who looked on approvingly.
The boy began talking to Glenn and I in a now relaxed tone and we discovered that the two boys had a mutual love of skateboarding in common.
I told the boy I knew of a great skateboarding story and switched on the television that was in an outer room and the boys watched a short documentary about two young brothers who left home on the East Coast with their skateboards and went to California to become professional skateboard champions.
After the documentary, Glenn and I went to say goodbye to President Biden and thank him for his hospitality. Glenn had an apple in his right hand and extended his left to shake President Biden‘s hand. I quickly intervened by saying that Glenn should switch the apple into his left hand so he could properly shake the President's hand, which he did.
Finally, I extended my hand and firmly shook President Biden’s while placing my left hand on his bare arm, which felt hairy, bony and somewhat leathery.
I thanked President Biden again and wished him well and told him I’d see him back in Washington.
Then I woke up.
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