The Mayflower, it didn't land in Plymouth first

Hello History buffs, how many of you know that the Mayflower landed in Provincetown, MA first? And only after a brief and not so positive encounter with some Native American Indians (and some bad weather) did they hoist up the anchor and move down the coast to spotlight hogging Plymouth. Our last three weeks have overflowed with history, we visited Plymouth, Provincetown, Boston, Philadelphia, New York (as many of you know, the birthplace of the first Apple Store), and now Washington DC. But I'll keep this post limited to "the Cape" and our Massachusetts visit. We spent a little more than 11 days in this fine state, and had to extend our stay once because of it was just too much fun.

Downtown Boston, this is the Old State Building, smack center downtown, and is where Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed to the city's population in 1776 and is the oldest public building in Boston.

You may have heard of Plymouth Rock, the story is that the first Pilgrims stepped on this rock when landing in Plymouth. Well, we discovered something really amazing, there is an actual a rock and we took a picture of it for you to see. Some smarty pants history "expert" may try and tell you that they actually "created" the rock, and the rock story, 121 years after the landing of the Mayflower for symbolic reasons, but don't listen to them, this is the actual rock, I could tell.

Does anybody know what this building is in downtown Plymouth? Well I can't remember, but I do remember something really interesting and historical happened in there....

A good friend of mine from high school lives in Plymouth, yes people actually live there and it has a real town... with some great seafood restaurants, I may add. Kim Perry and her husband Brian were our tour guides for the day, then later in the week gave us a great treat, and watched our kids for a "date night". Good news for Jen and I... and for our kids, they had a blast with Kim's cute little girls.

We are awarding the prestigious "Little's Lovin Life" AWARD to our friend, and Massachusetts babysitter, Kim Perry. Not just because she watched our kids for 5 hours but because she truly lives life to the fullest, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit with her and her family.

Our kids with Kim's Chase and Alex.

This is probably my favorite picture taken on this trip, with a little filtering from my companies iPhone app Plastic Bullet. (only $1.99 ;-) This is Kim's little girl Alex. Those are some cute girls!

This was one of my favorite sightseeing moments on the trip, thinking about seeing the ship the first settlers came to America on was exhilarating. The ship is amazing and didn't disappoint, it was built several decades ago as an exact replica, built to scale. Once aboard, the crew is in accurate costumes of their time and act their character to the tee. They wouldn't break character for anything, you can ask them what it was like during the voyage, or how many people died, or what life was like back then, they even spoke in proper accents. My favorite question came from Campbell, he says with a very straight face, "Do you know what an iPad is?", the sailor says with a confused look, "why no, I have no idea". Of course Campcell and the other kids thought that was very funny and laughed for five minutes...and went back and asked him about iPhones, computers, and DS's. He never broke character, maybe he was a pilgrim from 1620.

On a more serious note, I talked to one of the sailors for a while about the pilgrim's motivation to leave their native lands, and risk their lives to travel to America. 1/2 of the 102 Mayflower pilgrims came over to to escape religious persecution, 1/2 sought a better life. The voyage took about 60 days, and was brutal. They were crowded in the relatively small haul of ship, and rarely went upstairs. No bathrooms (just cups, and these weren't the fancy ceramic chamber pots you may be thinking of... just a cup) , no showers, no beds, and little food. They risked their lives to get to the shores of America for a better life, it was all extremely interesting and thought provoking. I would of talked to him longer but I had to take a call on my iPhone.

The Cape. Cape Cod is a really cool place, the topography is unique filled with rolling dunes, long seashores, and happy people. We stayed about two miles from Provincetown, MA which is the furthermost tip of the Cape. Every morning I walked into town along the beach to a coffee ship called the Wired Puppy, it is probably my favorite coffee shop I've visited, and nobody goes to more coffee houses than I do. Great soy lattes, music, atmosphere, service, and a nice view of people walking by all day. The last picture is our RV in our sandy and lonely Cape Park.