If you never watched Burn Notice, I can assure you it’s a cute show. The protagonist is a former spy trying to make his post-spying life work out, and each episiode starts with him explaining some feature of his old job. He begins each narration, “When you’re a spy…”
Apropos. Our only scheduled thing today besides a Southwest flight from Love Field to Reagan National was a time-stamped entry to the International Spy Museum. That one was Cas’ idea, and he wanted to do that first, in case there was some content we learned that would help us interpret the things we’d see the rest of the time we’re here. Spy museum accomplished. Here’s how it all shook out: When you’re a spy, you land and take the Metro to your hotel. Wait, that’s when you’re a tourist. Regardless, we are all in for public transportation. We got a seven-day pass, and we plan to wear it out just before we get a three-day pass for the rest of our time here.
Still, when you’re a tourist… you have to eat lunch. After being allowed an early check-in, we headed to a sandwich shop called the West Wing Cafe. It’s a half-block off of Pennsylvania Avenue, and they have pretty great paninis. That was along our path to the Spy Museum, and we forged ahead. We actually walked through the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the way, too. The greatest thing about the Smithsonian Museums is that they’re all free. If you have five minutes or five hours, you can walk in and see something amazing. We looked at the dinosaur bones for a bit, as well as the skulls that represent earlier versions of humans before we headed up to the second floor to check out rocks, gemstones and the oh-so-famous Hope Diamond.
Weird girl confession time- I have never preferred Diamods over other stones. In fact, I prefer Sapphires, then Rubies, then Emeralds long before their pale cousins, the diamond. Still, the Hope Diamond is a very pretty blue, making it inherently more interesting to me that anything that those folks at the engagement ring store tried to persuade me to want just over seven years ago. I know, I am not girl-ing correctly, but since when is that a surprise?
From there, we walked over to the International Spy Museum. Cue the When you’re a spy references, because we sure did. It was a very cool museum. There were spy gadgets, features about famous and infamous spies, explanations about why spy craft is still necessary in today’s world- and each person was assigned a cover story to “be” through the exhibits. I was pretending to be a photographer from Puebla, New Mexico named something like Christine. I had to collect intel as we went through and help capture the bad guy. The staff there upon entry told us it typically takes two hours to get through all of the exhibits. They clearly haven’t strolled through a gadget-laden space with Cas. We showed up about two hours and 45 minutes before they closed, and we walked out of the inevitable gift shop with the rest of the folks being shooed out. It’s a pretty great museum- I can recommend it, though I think the interactive portions are so popular that they should build additional ones. Also, a few more benches wouldn’t kill them. It was nearly three hours of stranding. I digress. When you’re a tourist, you can do that.
From there. We went to the Potomac and found a nice bar for a light dinner with a few celebratory glasses of Prosecco. We learned after a years-ago balloon trip that you should always follow a successful flight with a few sparkles, and we wouldn’t want to buck tradition.
From there, we headed back to the hotel by way of a drugstore where we picked up breakfast bars and a few bananas. I do so enjoy not rushing about in the morning in the mad dash to find breakfast.
We’re turning in early tonight. It was a very big day, and we have an early appointment tomorrow to take our White House tour. We’re going through the rules and regulations now to make sure we don’t screw up. No aerosols. No water bottles. No box cutters. You get the idea. Bring your ID, your flash-less camera or phone, and try not to touch anything.
We’ll see what we can do, but maybe they can see if they can invite us in to chat. I have some great ideas, especiallly about the education system, and specifically, the teaching profession. I think they’d love to hear from me.
More on our trips to the White House and to Congress tomorrow after we get there. In the meantime, we’re getting our toothbrushes out and hitting the hay.
Cas will have the photo album ready tomorrow, so go ahead and hold your breath. It’s on the way. Our hotel Internet leaves something to be desired.
And here is a nice picture of us walking through a Smithsonian-adjacent garden on the way somewhere today:
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