Spies and Wax Figures.

On Sunday the plan was to hit a few places before lunchtime so that my Dad could get home at a decent time to have some time to relax before going in to work on Monday. Burke and I also needed some time to do some laundry and homework. We decided on Saturday night that we would spend Sunday morning together going to the Spy Museum and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Let me tell you, it was so much fun!

The Spy Musuem was really neat and informative, but my god there was so much stuff everywhere! We spent over an hour walking around and we may have seen 50% of it all. There were just so many nooks and crannies and everywhere held information to read or things to look at. It was neat because it progressed through history starting with early spies from around the world and ending with the new threat of cyber spies and cyber security. One quote in the museum that I really appreciated was this one from James Woosley a former CIA Director referring to the Soviet Union's collapse, "We have slain a large dragon but we now live in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes. And in many ways the dragon was easier to keep track of." After checking out the Spy Museum Gift Shop we headed toward Madame Tussaud's.

Upon entering we immediately were placed into the presidential section. It was really cool to see the "presidents" mostly because you don't ever think about things like how tall they were. Thomas Jefferson was extremely tall, but then James Madison was like my height! We walked through the whole museum constantly stopping to look at the figures (many of whom were VERY lifelike). A corny moment was when I had Burke take a picture with Richard Nixon because we love Futurama and in the TV show Nixon becomes president of Earth in the 3000's. Although Burke's favorite was his photo with Ronald Reagan. My favorite was my photo with Teddy Roosevelt. We also took photos with some other people such as Johnny Depp, Bob Dylan and I got a photo of the heads of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI (again history major showing). My Dad also got a photo with Muhhamed Ali. It was a really cool experience.

After we left Madame Tussaud's, I saw a really cool Catholic Church, so I wanted to go inside. Luckily it was open. The church's name is St. Patrick's Church, apparently it used to be a parish but got so many members that they needed to rename it. It was really big and the architecture was beautiful, especially with the added benefit of the stained glass. I took some photos of it and walked around inside for a bit. Then we all headed back to the Metro where I had to say bye to my Dad (I didn't cry, although I was really sad). Then Burke and I returned home to an afternoon of laundry and homework. But this weekend was probably one of my favorite weekends here in DC because I got to spend it with some of my family at least. And I believe my Dad enjoyed it almost as much as I did.
:)

Now I only have 25 days standing between me and heading home. (I have so many places left to visit, I don't know if I'll get them all in!)