Madame Tussauds

Whoopi Goldberg waits to greet you outside Washington’s version of Madame Tussauds. And isn’t that Penélope Cruz over there by the counter? Inside you’ll find all kinds of distinguished personages, beginning with historical figures such as King George III (this is where the labels come in handy) and the authors of the Declaration of Independence. You can sit next to Rosa Parks in the civil rights room and meet the likes of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. There are little nuggets of information throughout, too, such as the fact that the FBI began wiretapping King in 1961, using information gained to try and blackmail him. This being DC, it’s not surprising that the nation’s presidents are immortalized here—among them President Obama in the Oval Office. You have to wait until the end to find the celebrities: Beyoncé, George Clooney and Oprah among them.