Everyone loves a day at the beach, and as far as family road trips go, I remember traveling across the Southern states as a little girl, in the back of my Grandparentsmotorhome . We traveled through New Mexico, across the great state of Texas…the great big state of Texas. Through Louisiana and Alabama and across Florida, until we finally set up camp along the shores of Miami. When I was a kid I was obsessed with books that described ‘fun facts’ about people, places and things, “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” was one of my favorite. I waited patiently each year for the new and updated version to come out.
As we set off for our trip, my Grandmother handed me a book of facts, about Miami. I didn’t know where Miami was, but I knew that that was where we were headed, so I was excited not only to hit the road, but to read my book along the way. Miami, the word, stems from the Tequestan word Mayaimi which means sweet water. Looking back and remembering the beach on that first day, I know why that name was applied to the city.
The Banyan tree, a fig tree with large roots that sit above the ground as the tree ages, is indegineous to Miami, and the city competes with the Indian city of Phuket, for the largest and oldest tree, many of the trees live to 300 years old. Miami has he largest port for cruise ships in the world, and is also the number one ranking international port for import and export. Miami sits at the South Eastern most corner of the United States, and is the third most popular site of tourist’s destination, behind New York and Los Angeles, in the country. And, Miami is the only American city to be planned and designed by a woman.
I read off these facts all along our trip, and I am pretty sure the adults were getting tired of hearing me start every sentence with “did you know?…” My Grandfather treated us to an elegant dinner in one of the luxury hotels along the beach of Miami, as we had been camping out and eating “road food” for a couple of weeks. And later on in the evening my Grandmother and I walked along the beach, and she asked me to tell her more about Miami. All I could really say to her at moment was, “did you know?…that I love Miami?” She smiled and we kept on walking into the sunset.
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