Don't complicate things by bringing along a spouse. If you aren't up to a long car trip or airport hassles, spend 24 hours at a good hotel. You'll be home by midafternoon.
People come together over sherry in the evening and breakfast in the morning.
It's a way to break out of the box. Or it may mean a trip to her ancestral homeland. Either way, take along photos of relatives. If she's a Civil War buff, make a sojourn to Gettysburg, Pa., and other battlefields. Plus, it adds the variety of meeting fellow passengers in the observation car and at mealtimes.