Most Unusual, Weird, or Exclusive places you have been?

[roadman65]

In St. Augustine, FL there is a room in the corner of the Castillo de San Marco that you have to crawl into that then opens up into a vault.    When I went inside all I can think about was the entrance being sealed off and trapped in the dark room with thick walls.

[Rothman]

In St. Augustine, FL there is a room in the corner of the Castillo de San Marco that you have to crawl into that then opens up into a vault.    When I went inside all I can think about was the entrance being sealed off and trapped in the dark room with thick walls.

I think I was up in there.

[Techknow]

-Also ruffled around a few of my school's storage closets (they were unlocked and nobody was around...nothing interesting except a bunch of cleaning equipment)

My junior year of high school I took a Computer Science III computer class, which apparently nobody had ever shown interest in taking before, so the teacher had no curriculum for it (and she had too much on her plate to try and find something for one student who probably knew anything she'd be able to teach anyway). Instead she basically told me to propose projects that I could do, and she would then enter a grade for me. (I don't think she gave me anything less than an A, since she didn't really know what I was doing.)

That sounds much more cool and interesting that the computer classes I took in high school. I basically learned how to use Adobe CS products and made simple websites. My high school didn't/doesn't offer AP Computer Science A, yet I took the test for it twice. I remember the second time I took it, it was in a computer lab and a teacher wanted to use the lab at that time but couldn't because I was taking the test.

Anyway one of the most exclusive (but not weird or unusual) places I been is at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for a summer internship. I was working on Worldview, a public app and I prototyped the video button feature that's there today. There are some interesting buildings such as the world's largest clean room but my building was an office building with sliding door cubicles so not as exciting. I did get escorted by my intern manager to see an underground server room in an adjacent building from where I was in.

[epzik8]

Chichen Itza when you were still allowed to climb up to the top of the pyramid.

[JayhawkCO]

I realized when I originally answered this, I missed one.

I have given a speech on the stage at Red Rocks. My high school graduation was there.

[NWI_Irish96]

When I was in 8th Grade, I got a tour of the US Capitol and White House guided by a US Senator. I got to see some areas that normal tours didn't cover, even in the pre-9/11 days.

Two others: On the sideline during a Cotton Bowl

East Berlin, when it was still East Berlin

[thspfc]

Inside Buckingham Palace, though that's become less rare recently.

Also been on the field several times at Camp Randall and Huntington Bank Stadium, and on the playing surface one time each at American Family Field and Fiserv Forum. I was on the sideline at Lambeau Field but was not able to go in-bounds.

The press box at AmFam field has countless marks on the walls from foul balls flying in the windows, and each mark has the date and the player who hit the ball written next to it. I would think this is common practice by MLB media at all stadiums. Pretty cool to see dents from foul balls hit by great players 10-15 years ago.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

On the rim of an active volcano.  (Mt. Bromo in Indonesia)

Since I posted (in fact the previous post to the one quoted) I've done this as well, except at Mt. Vesuvius.

[jlam]

My house

[JayhawkCO]

On the rim of an active volcano.  (Mt. Bromo in Indonesia)

Since I posted (in fact the previous post to the one quoted) I've done this as well, except at Mt. Vesuvius.

Since I posted this, I got a second volcano, and actually saw lava. (Volcán de Masaya in Nicaragua)

[frankenroad]

I've sung onstage at both the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, as part of a large chorus.

[JayhawkCO]

I've sung onstage at both the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, as part of a large chorus.

That's awesome.

[kphoger]

Weird in a different way:  the crematorium gas chamber at Dachau

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I've sung onstage Carnegie Hall, as part of a large chorus.

Interestingly, despite the small number of people who have done this, you're not the only member of this board who has.

[Rothman]

I've sung onstage Carnegie Hall, as part of a large chorus.

Interestingly, despite the small number of people who have done this, you're not the only member of this board who has.

I wonder how small that number is.  I'm sure there have been high school choruses and the like that have performed in those venues.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Walked on the extension of the EOE (IL 390) before opening to traffic
Drove on the new Cline Avenue bridge prior to traffic
Walked on the Lucas Oil Stadium during the halftime of one of the high school football state game
Been inside both of the old and the new Indiana Toll Road Administration buildings
Toured my new local hospital before it opened to the public in 2020

[TheCatalyst31]

I once spent the night on a World War II US Navy submarine (the USS Cobia at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum).

When I was in college, I got to both the highest point on campus, on the roof of the nine-story main library, and some of the lowest points, deep in the campus steam tunnels. That sort of exploration was pretty common when I was a student, though by the time I graduated the university had started to crack down on it for liability reasons.

[JayhawkCO]

I once spent the night on a World War II US Navy submarine (the USS Cobia at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum).

When I was in college, I got to both the highest point on campus, on the roof of the nine-story main library, and some of the lowest points, deep in the campus steam tunnels. That sort of exploration was pretty common when I was a student, though by the time I graduated the university had started to crack down on it for liability reasons.

I was once in the anechoic chamber underneath Blake Hall on the University of Kansas campus. Maybe not the lowest point, but anechoic chambers are crazy.

[LilianaUwU]

I've been to Rio Tinto's Tio mine north of Havre-Saint-Pierre.

[DandyDan]

In the pre-9/11 era, I used to be able to drive around Offutt AFB in Nebraska, as long as I was driving my mom's car. My brother, who is disabled, had a job with Goodwill and needed someone to drive him to work on base. I could pretty much drive wherever I wanted, which I did once I dropped him off at whatever building I had to drop him off at.

[ozarkman417]

I've sat in the chair for the Chair of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission in the room where their meetings are held.

[cl94]

Let's see...

• Walked on the roadway and US customs plaza of the Peace Bridge. Not the sidewalk, the actual road.
• Walked around an active port facility on official business (Port of Albany)
• Lectured multiple times at a major conference in DC (TRB, Walter Washington Convention Center). Starts blurring into "experiences", which I won't go into to stay on topic (though I have some exclusive ones).
• The Tahoe Blue Events Center at Lake Tahoe when it was still under construction

[CtrlAltDel]

The office of the président of France.

Not for any official purpose, of course, but the French government opens up a lot of buildings which are normally kept closed to the public during the Journées du patrimoine. One of them is the French White House, the palais de l'Élysée, and I took the occasion to visit it in 2008.

This was maybe a week or two after I had arrived in France for a year of research, and I toured the palais kind of blindly. I saw the cabinet room, the press room, and the président's office, and so on, in person first, which made for a bit of a weird experience when I finally did see them on television.

[Scott5114]

This wasn't exclusive, but it was weird—I went to the Tropicana casino last night, which is closing on April 2 so it can be demolished to build a baseball stadium. Half of the gaming floor was already shut down, with the machines turned off. That, combined with the ancient facility and the typical disorienting casino design, gave it a very "backrooms" feel.

I also saw a man in a bunny costume in the restroom, but that's just Vegas weirdness as opposed to Tropicana weirdness.