1. Nannies, Inc.
City: Oakton, VA
Category: Child Care
Telephone: (410) 267-0610 (Annapolis)
Address: 3031 Borge Street, Suite 107
Description: Washington Families newspaper voted this 18-year-old agency, founded by a single dad, the Best Nanny Service in the Washington metropolitan area. The agency places only long-term, full-service nannies.
2. Flint Hill School
City: Oakton, VA
Category: Education
Telephone: (703) 584-2300
Description: Flint Hill is a nondenominational, coed college prep school of about 1,061 students. The school boasts a new campus, opened in 2001, for the upper grades. It is known for its lofty academic and competitive athletic programs. The student/faculty ratio is 14 to 1. Founded in 1956, the school also stresses community service: Graduation requirements include 60 hours of service to be completed by the end of the first senior semester. Pupils can take a variety of honors and advanced placement courses, and all seniors design and complete three-week independent study projects. (Senior projects in recent years have included such eclectic themes as living at a Buddhist monastery, working at a hospital in Uruguay, and designing costumes and sets for the Shakespeare Theatre.) The campuses are a stone’s throw from I–66, in the upper-middle-class residential community of Oakton.
3. Balloons Unlimited
City: Oakton, VA
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (703) 281-2300
Description: Owner Bob Thomas has been piloting balloons above Middleburg and the Shenandoah region for more than three decades. Flights cost $175 per person and last approximately an hour. Children accompanied by at least one adult are admitted for $100 (ages 12 and younger). You can book your trip for any day of the week, April through mid-November. Thomas also offers ballooning classes and sells balloons of the helium-filled variety at his Oakton store.