What better

place to take a history teacher than to Boston and Cape Cod, Mass., an

area rich in the history of our country's early days. Being it's our anniversary

and The Wife's a history teacher, the trip seemed to be a great idea.

We landed in

Boston, rented a car and drove to Cape Cod. Along the way we saw an ice

cream parlor or donut shop on every street. For lunch we ate at a place

called Friendly's and it was very. When the waitress realized we were

from out of town she brought us you guessed it free ice cream.

We had been

in Massachusetts for only two hours but found everyone to be friendly

and skinny. The Wife thinks this is due to all of the ice cream and donut

shops. "Ever seen anyone mad that was eating ice cream or donuts?"

She now has a new diet to try when we get home; say so long to Atkins

and hello the Boston ice cream and donut diet. Glad we have stock in Krispy

Kreme! After lunch we continued out trip and would have made the Cape

Rotaries are

where four streets intersect and merge into a circle. The cars go round

and round just guessing which one has the right of way. The next morning

about 9 a.m. we found our way out of the rotary and made it to Cape Cod.

Once there, I found the history I learned in school was not exactly accurate.

The following is but a couple of the misconceptions I had about our nation's

first few years.

Just like Minneapolis,

the city of Boston did not have one glass of sweet tea. But unlike Minneapolis,

the very friendly people of Boston did have a good reason for not having

it, but it's not the reason I'd learned in school. Come to find out the

reason was not that, way back at the start of this country, the people

in Boston had a big Fourth of July party and threw all of the tea in the

harbor.

I also learned

Plymouth was not the first landing of the ships in the new world after

all. The first landing was made at Provincetown. There, we walked up the

285-foot tower which commemorates that landing. From the top we could

see Boston Harbor and Plymouth, where the pilgrims eventually did land.

But why did they leave Provincetown and sail onto Plymouth? It wasn't

for the reason I thought.

The locals

in Provincetown told me that I was wrong in my assumption as to why, after

landing, Christopher Columbus and group decided to sail onto Plymouth.

The pilgrims did not get off the ships at Provincetown after 67 days looking

for a bathroom, and finding none, loaded back up the ships and sailed

around to Plymouth.

It is also

not true that the Nina, Pinto, and San Tina Marina sailed into Plymouth

harbor where the Pinto hit a big rock and sank. At that time, Columbus

did not say, "Boy, did you see the size of that rock the Pinto just

hit? It was as big as a Plymouth," and so named the town.

After my revolutionary

history lesson received in Provincetown, I decided to turn to the one

person that I knew had all the answers about history the one person that

could set the record straight and comfort me in my time of confusion.

But The Wife was laughing too hard to answer any of my questions. The

next day we decided to go to the small town of Sandwich, where I received

another history lesson.

Sandwich is

a small town just north of Hyannis on Cape Cod. There we visited the Pilgrim

museum and I learned about Shakers. The Shakers are a religious sect that

came to the new world in the late 1700s seeking relief from religious

persecution back in England. Shakers believed in living a simple life

hard work, abstinence, and not indulging in worldly pleasures like ice

cream and donuts. Shaker furniture is still in great demand today, valued

for its quality of workmanship and attention to detail. Many of the innovations

in early furniture design are credited to the creativity of the Shakers.

Once a large

sect, only five members live today residing in Maine. I believe they died

out because of the abstinence; The wife believes it was due to denying

themselves ice cream and donuts.

It was about

lunch time so we had lunch in Sandwich and you guessed it; we had a sandwich.

At lunch I learned that early settlers who came from England did indeed

name the town after the Earl of Sandwich. We finished our sandwich, left

Sandwich behind and went