It wasn’t that kind of intimate encounter, but Paula Routly of Seven Days did run into the Obama family while biking on Martha’s Vineyard with her boyfriend last week.

After passing a family of bikers and noting that “everyone around here looks like Michelle Obama,” Routly was at first doubtful of her partner’s claim that this was the real deal. Then:

I looked over to see the cycling commander in chief right beside me, close enough to touch. His thin face appeared even more chiseled in a presidential bike helmet. Instead of the ridiculous “gear” favored by his predecessor, he wore a geeky polo shirt and long pants.

In a flash, the group — which included Malia and a bunch of Secret-Service guys on bikes — was gone, and the reality of this astonishingly intimate encounter with the First Family began to sink in.

Routly’s encounter would have been more impressive had a commenter not one-upped her with the following account:

A friend of mine once ran into MC Hammer in Times Square. All she could muster was “Holy S**t!” and he smiled and said, “Hi!.”