Montpelier Hunt Races: When I worked at MAXM (now taken over by a California outfit) in Virginia, one of the VPs kindly invited us to watch some steeplechase and flat races at Montpelier (former home of one of the Adams presidents and later owned by one of the DuPonts). He had a spot close to the finish line, so we could watch them thundering by. It was a drizzly day and a long drive, but I had fun and was glad I went. Some of the races were just local hunt club folks; others were a bigger deal. After a while, though, the cold got to us so we adjourned to our hosts' 1840 farmhouse nearby, which I also enjoyed touring.
About 2900 feet over Emmittsburg, Maryland, I flew a plane! OK, it was only for three seconds, but it was still fun. My friends Juanita and Jack fly gliders with a club on a hill there, and Jack took me up for about an hour in a two-person glider. He did swoops and stalls and very narrow turns -- it felt like the plane was almost standing straight up on a wingtip -- and I loved it all! We were also lucky that just over the border, some Pennsylvanians were doing a Civil War reenactment, so w e got to watch troops moving and cannons firing from our gliders.
Naval Observatory: I met some local mailing-list folks when one of them, an astronomer writing software for New Mexico telescopes, invited us all to a viewing of Comet Hyakutake. We met at Ben-Kay's (excellent and varied sushi) on Wisconsin, then drove the short distance to the Observatory. First Greg led us on a walking tour (avoiding the Admiralty/Embassy wine & cheese affair), pointing out the Vice President's house an ould see the comet's tail, though everything looked much smaller in the telescope field. The revellers came our way so we went into the main building which housed the other two telescopes we used. The 26-inch was set up the late 1800's. They raised the floor up to the height of the telescope (a floor or so). I couldn't see much more detail, oh well. Before we used the 16-inch, we stepped out onto its dome's wraparound balcony, giving us a beautiful night view of the Washington Monument, National Cathedral, and other sights. Aaaaah.