Where-To-Go Wednesday - Road Trip - International Spy Museum and Spy Museum Sleepover

We were given free tickets to the International Spy Museum for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: International Spy Museum

Where: 800 F Street NW
             Washington DC

Who: Tweens and up


Me - The International Spy Museum was fun. Everything was interesting there. Even the bathroom signs have pictures of spies on them. It's really kind of cool. There was a US Mailbox that was used as a dead drop. It was mentioned in an episode of Mysteries at the Museum. There were a couple of James Bond cars. They had a whole exhibit on James Bond. It included costumes from some of the movies. The Spy Museum also had a fascinating car which was used to smuggle people over the border. It was really cool because it had all these secret compartments where people could hide. There were a lot of interesting items used for spying including a toy truck, and a purse with a camera in it. There were also lots of disguises. There were lots of ever day items with hidden cameras including a wristwatch and a purse. They had a picture of Maxwell Smart on the shoe phone from Get Smart. There was a model of the Trojan horse, and you could see the little people inside of it. There were a whole bunch of kids spy toys like games, toy cars, and guns. There were all differents kinds of old radios. There were code breaking and coding machines.There was even an actual Oscar award. It was won by a director who was allegedly a spy. Over all, it is a really fun museum and they have lot of great stuff. I would really recommend you go there.


Mom - The International Spy Museum is a really fascinating place. Here you can learn about what spying was like during different periods of history, for instance, the Civil War or the Cold War. You can see all different types of spy equipment like bugs and cameras and learn the history of those as well. For instance they both started out very large and now they can be very tiny.  Also both of these types of items can be hidden in the most surprising places like in fake tree trunks or rocks or in suits or watches or cigarette cases or in a ton of other usual places. You can see other spy related equipment like weapons and disguises. There are even a lot of items at the museum that have been featured on the Travel Channel show, Mysteries at the Museum. You can also learn about famous spies, some of whom were famous for being spies like Mata Hari and others who were famous for other things but were also spies like Marlene Dietrich and Julia Child. There are fun interactive exhibits like one where you take on a spy identity and you have to answer questions regarding your mission to get out of a foreign country or another where you play against others to figure out the type of threat shown on a screen. In the latter, three people can play at a time, and the first person to get the right answer wins. There is a whole exhibit on James Bond. It includes books and toys as well as props and costumes from the films among other things. There are information stations that tell you whether some of the things that happened in some of the films are real or could be real. There are clips of actors talking about acting in the films. There are even a couple of James Bond cars. There are interactive aspects to the James Bond exhibit as well like a bar that you can hang from so you can see if you can hold on as long as James Bond does in one of his movies or a pretend bomb that you need to defuse before the time runs out. Children who scare very easily might not enjoy the International Spy Museum, but everyone else probably would. It is a really entertaining place to visit.


For more information about the International Spy Museum go to http://www.spymuseum.org/
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We were given a free sleepover at the International Spy Museum for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: Operation Secret Slumber

Where: International Spy Museum
             800 F Street NW
            Washington DC

Who: Kids 9-13 and their parents or guardians

Me - The sleepover at the International Spy Museum is amazing! They call it Operation Secret Slumber. We got to meet a real spy. Everybody had to make up a name that was their spy name. Some people had to wear fake mustaches and some didn't. We had a mocktail party. We had to talk to people to find who our contact was. Then, they split is into groups. In our groups, we learned about spying. We got to wear disguises and do all these different things. It was fun. We even got to crawl through an air vent. We left a message at a dead drop. We picked up another message. The next morning we put all the groups messages together to figure out what they meant. We were trying to find the mole in our sleepover group. We were successfully able to find the mole. Then, we had a graduation, and we got certificates with our spy names. Mine was spelled wrong. I was not happy about that. We also got a bag of stuff included really cool spy glasses. They have mirrors so you can see behind you. Over all, it was a really fun sleepover, and I would really recommend participating in it, if you have a chance.

Mom - Operation Secret Slumber at the Spy Museum is one of the most fun sleepovers we have ever attended. First of all, there are a lot less people than at most other sleepovers we have been to. At most sleepovers there can be literally hundreds of people. At this one there was maybe about 100 or so. Also, while there are some activities that everyone participates in like creating a secret spy name and a mocktail party, there are also separate activities for kids and adults. While the children are off learning how to be spies, the adults get to participate in Operation Spy where they get to pretend to be spies and they have to work together to complete a mission. Both children and adults actually get to meet a real spy and hear about what it is like to actually work as a spy. There are number of different former spies who participate in this program and which one you will get to meet varies depending when you are there. The former spy we met was Melissa Boyle Mahle. She actually participated in a mission to try to take out Osama Bin Laden before 9/11.  The stories she told about her career were fascinating although there is only a limited amount she can actually talk about. She did not talk about the Osama Bin Laden mission, Now, she is retired from the CIA, and she writes spy novels. Other who participate in the program include Tony Mendez who was portrayed by Ben Affleck in the Oscar winning movie, Argo and his wife, Jonna Mendez both of who are former CIA chiefs of disguise. All in all, a night at the Spy Museum gives you the opportunity to have all of the fun of being a spy without any of the danger.
 

For more information or to register for the next Operation Secret Slumber at the International Spy Museum go to https://www.spymuseum.org/calendar/detail/kidspy-overnight/2017-07-07/.

And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Theater Thursday.