This morning it was cloudy but warm as we left the hotel. We walked to the Canadian embassy and we saw a famous sculpture that used to be on the $20 bill, called the Spirit of the Haida Gwaii. Then we went to the dome and sang Oh Canada. It is a spot where the sound echos and projects so the people in the offices can hear. They did hear and they clapped for us and waved. After the Canadian embassy, we walked to the National Archives. The building was beautiful. It’s where the actual archives of the USA Magna Carta are kept. It was a rotunda with art, history and the parchment. There were also 2 other exhibits. The gift shop was also really good because there was lots of cool political souvenirs.
We left and went to the Hirshorn modern art museum. We played a game where we stood next to an art piece that we thought we could recreate and took a picture. We are all aspiring artists. As we were walking around there was a room with an art installation that had all the walls and floor painted with quotes and words. There was a large sculpture of a bird and a gold, rundown canoe. On one of the floors, the art was like wallpaper and had string and it was torn. There were many different panels. There was also a video that was interesting because artists explained how when they work on their art they can mess up but it can still turn into a great piece.
After lunch we headed over to the spy museum. We were in 3 groups so we could begin our spy mission. We each got a code name, a secret code and a special mission. We watched a film on how dangerous being a spy can be and then we headed off. There were tons of different tasks where we had to remember our secret identity through border control or crawl through the vents. We had to be quiet or it would set off the sound meter. My favorite was the mirror room because everything except one wall was made out of mirrors and everything reflected. We took a group selfie with Ms Clark in the mirror. One of us dropped a metal water bottle on the floor and it sounded like a mirror broke. We panicked and ran out. After our mission was complete we checked out the spy tools and many people had to own the switch blade comb.
We had a break at the hotel and then walked to Union Station for dinner and to meet our bus for the dusk tour. We drove past many monuments and special buildings. The guide gave us lots of information and facts. My favorite memorial was the Lincoln memorial. We could see the Washington monument and the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln. The reflection of the Washington monument in the pool was beautiful. After that we drove to the memorial for the fallen soldiers where we took a group photo. We got back on the bus and drove back to our hotel. Every time a branch hit the bus, it made us jump because we only had a cover on the roof top. When we got off the bus there were branches inside.
Finally it’s time for bed.
