Serendipity: A Summer in Washington, D.C.: Spies, 18th Century Documents, News, and More

Back at it today after a full weekend! I feel very accomplished after tackling four museums in two days. The tricky part is that to fully enjoy each museum, you have to spend at least 3 hours there and all the museums close around 5-5:30 so you have to start early if you want to complete than one museum in one day.

At work on Friday we got to tour the House floor with Senator Boozman and learned a lot about their work since he was a House Representative for 10 years. We also got to go out on House Speaker Boehner's balcony which had a beautiful view of Capitol Hill. Friday was also a very important night of the week: laundry night. We went in search of quarters again and had just enough for two loads. Haha. My roommates and I also went out to see the Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial at night. The monuments were gorgeous and so well lit. There were more people out exploring them at 11:30 then I thought there would be. But we had a nice night.

Saturday we woke up nice and early to get to the International Spy Museum at 9 am. We viewed the James Bond villain exhibit first. It was really fun to see props from the movies and learn what the villains were modeled after. I really need to watch more of the movies when I get home... Jaws was definitely the most creepy one. The museum overall was very interactive. We payed extra to participate in a mock mission. They claimed that it had elements from actual spy missions but who knows haha. As a group we were tasked with figuring out where this nuclear bomb timer was being kept and how certain suspects were involved. We had to sneak into a basement and not get caught by the "video cameras". Then we had to search for documents and crack a safe while keeping everything in the room as it had been when we entered. According to the program we only moved 4.5% of the room so not too bad. There was a younger kid in our group that was having a great time. Our guide (who kept us on track) thought we were a funny group. It was early in the morning so he was having to help us keep track of what we were supposed to do and what was going on. We were supposed to be quietly sneaking in somewhere and he thought it was really funny that we stepped on the man-hole and made a bunch of noise. We also failed to find the right set of keys to open the safe, of course there were two sets...(still don't really believe that). Haha. But it was a lot of fun. We had to get in an elevator at one point too and the guide said, "There's a mouse on here but it's fine." There definitely wasn't but my friend brushed his hand over my other friend's foot while we were in there and she screamed and lashed out at me, "It touched me!" It was hilarious. The rest of the museum was really cool. There were so many gadgets, I loved it. They had so many different ways to hide bugs, disguise cameras, and tape recorders. It was awesome. I also became more aware of what it takes for someone to be a spy which I had never considered. I always wanted to be one growing up but I definitely do not have what it takes. They have to be able to lie very easily, they learn to trust no one, they have to be supremely observant, and enjoy high-stress situations. I'll just stick to reading about them :).

After the Spy Museum we went to the National Archives. There was a huge line but it went really quickly. They circulate people in the Rotunda pretty well. That is where we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. This was a little bit anti-climactic for me. The Declaration is almost completely unreadable. It has faded so much the only words I could make out were the title at the top and "free and independent." The Bill of Rights was very faint and in very small print so I could not really make that one out either. They do have all the documents encased in argon because it doesn't react with the ink and paper. The glass doesn't touch the paper and they have the lights dim, supposedly two foot-candles. This is the equivalent of being a foot away from a standard British candle, so very very dim. The Constitution was very legible so I read some of the Articles which was cool. The documents are on larger size paper than I imagined. That seems like a small thing but I was imagining what it would be like to write in calligraphy on such a giant piece of paper, trying to write straight, and not make any spelling errors.

That concludes my Saturday museum adventure but Sunday I made it to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Newseum. I was going to head to the Newseum first but they had the roads blocked off to that side of the city. I found out later that it was for a Red Bull commercial...So we went to the Natural History Museum instead and it was very nice. We saw all kinds of mammalian and marine life represented as well as geology, some dinosaur fossils, and human evolution. It was all quite fascinating.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Newseum which is by far my favorite that I've visited so far. I could have spent all day in there pouring over all the news articles they had from colonial times to the present. I read articles on the traitorous affairs of Benedict Arnold, the death of Captain Hook, the assassination of President Lincoln, and the end of World War I. I felt like I was transported back in time with every article. It was simply amazing. The museum has a great terrace view of Pennsylvania Ave. too. There were exhibits on technology, the First Amendment rights, the Berlin Wall, the Anchorman movie franchise, the coverage of 9/11, a memorial for journalists who have died doing what they love, Nikon's Photos of the Year, and more. I soaked up everything I could and highly recommend it.

This is our fourth week in the office and this morning we got a tour of the Supreme Court! It was awesome. I've officially seen the "home" of all the three branches of government. We got to go into the court room and hear the justices hand down the arguments and swear in the new members of the Bar. I learned a lot of facts on our tour. The marble in the court room is from Spain and Italy while the outer marble is all domestic. The have a gorgeous law library for Bar members. There have only been 17 chief justices in America's history (they have long terms). Even though John Marshall wasn't the first one, he's pretty much regarded as the first because he was the first one to focus on interpreting America's Constitution and established many of the court's powers. There is also a fair amount of symbolism throughout the Supreme Court building and it has lots of characteristics of Greek and Roman temples. I'm really glad I got to go.

Well I'd better get back to work!