When I was growing up in California (Silicon Valley for that matter), I loved travelling (I got the bug on a short visit to LON at age 8), but my family only had the money to send me and my sister abroad twice between age 8 and 18 to visit our relatives in Israel and the UK.
What we did? We (i.e. my sister and I) saved all the plastic cups, inflight magazines etc., from the plane, and after weŽd get back, weŽd invite friends over and have some pretend flights (we even got to the point where we made and "scanned" in frequent flier cards!). Now that I fly transatlantic 2-3 times per year, it seems like the make-believe might have actually been more fun than flying (when we made-believe, we could always fly in first for nothing - except once when my sister got rowdy and I sent her back to coach ).
Of course, if as an adult you invite your friends over to such an activity, they might try to call the straightjacket people. One suggestion: organize a "themed" murder mystery party - and set it on a plane. For some reason that sort of make-believe looks perfectly mature and sophisticated .
Yonatan