International Spy Museum in Washington DC is open during Shutdown

This lesser known museum was built with the cooperation of former chiefs of the CIA, KGB and MI5 and has an interesting collection of spy gear. A Soviet lipstick gun, Bulgarian umbrella pistol, a shoe with a heel transmitter, a James Bond Aston Martin DB5 are all there for would-be spies to admire. Many of these espionage devices have never been displayed in public before.

There is a room where an enactment of an Atomic bomb is done - an announcement is made that the "Reds" have acquired the bomb, the room turns red, the floor shakes and trembles and you are scared out of your life. But that is not the scariest part of the museum. You can pick up headphones and listen in on conversation that has been picked up by bugs secretly placed around the museum. You are being watched!

The museum also organizes lectures and seminars. Dame Stella Rimington - the woman who ran the British Secret Service MI5 - did a book signing event at the museum. A lecture on "Hezbollah's Reach Around the World" is scheduled for October 17 2013. You can even test your family's spy skills at an event called "Spooky SPY Family Night," which includes a spy makeover and a scavenger hunt.

The Spy Museum stretches the entire city block between 9th and 8th Streets at 800 F Street, NW—one block from the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station and the Verizon Center in downtown Washington D.C. It is open from 10am to 6pm every day.