YOB: #2. The International Spy Museum

By Lara

Item number two on the Year of the Birthday list was to visit the International Spy Museum in Washington DC.

Keeping in mind that I am one of those girls who loves spy movies, I was totally excited. I knew that Beth would love the museum too. We decided to ride to DC on the metro on January 2nd. Maeli came with us. We were not the only people with that particular idea. The International Spy Museum was crazy crowded.

After standing in line to stand in line to get tickets, we stood in line to get tickets. After getting tickets, we stood in line to get in the door. Once in the door, we stood in line to get searched by security. Then we spent some quality time in a maze-like line that lead to the elevator. The elevator took about 15 minutes to climb three floors.

We ended our waiting in a room that had several undercover stories written on pillars. Our mission, if we chose to accept it, was to memorize one of the undercover stories. Then we watched a movie about being a spy. Then we were finally allowed into the museum proper. We could test ourselves on our undercover stories via virtual customs officers.

The museum is broken into sections. The first section is learning techniques for being a spy. They taught us how to pick locks and crawl through duct work. There were teenagers making out in the duct work. The next section focuses on the cool spy tools that have been used through the years. I was rather fond of the lipstick gun, personally. They also had a replica James Bond Astin Martin. The next section explains the history of spies and spying. The earliest recorded spies were Joshua and Caleb in the Bible. They walked us through Ancient China and Greece, Elizabethian England, Nazi Germany, and Communist Russia. There were displays on propaganda, famous spies, and spies in pop culture. The very last room in the museum proper lightly touches on spying in the twenty first century in very vague terms.

Beth and I were a little bit disappointed that there wasn't more information on modern spying, but Maeli reminded us that it's still all classified information. I guess she's right. Still. It would be cool to know about something more recent than 1985.

Like all good museums, the tour ends in the gift shop. To commemorate my visit, I purchased a murder mystery game and a T-shirt that says, "I was never here." It was another successful adventure.

The rest of our day involved fighting with the fare cards for the Metro, Olive Garden, and bitter cold. We did, however, notice when we left the museum that there is also a Museum of Crime and Punishment. That might be something to add to a future list.