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Google Earth

Something funny happened the other day. My husband was going to Augusta the next day for work, but only had a sketchy layout of the quarry and wanted a better look. He had to kick me off the computer to log onto Google Earth, but it'd been a while since we'd "played" with it, so I didn't complain too much.

He pulled the program up and put the address of the quarry into the search box. The globe began spinning and we went into a spiral nose dive into Augusta. Once Christian had looked at the aerial shots, he clicked on Roads and Maps. This brought us even closer to the quarry. It was then that we noticed camera icons along the routes. Christian clicked on the camera closest to the quarry, and the view dipped at a radical angle at the same time that a large bubble appeared on the screen. It looked like the view in a large round mirror in the corner of parking garages. The warped view grew and flattened out, until the screen became a digital photograph of the entrance to the quarry, as if we were sitting on the road ready to turn in. By scrolling with the mouse, we could turn 360 degrees and enjoy a panoramic view of the location. There were other camera icons along the road, and by clicking on each one you get a similar view from a new location. Too cool!

We put our home address in next. The last time we tried to see our place, Google Earth's most up-to-date aerial shots had been taken when there was no house build on our lot. Now, we were able to see our actual house. Someone had stood on the road right in front of our place and snapped a panoramic view. I had a strange feeling when I realized this, but it was still pretty cool. We could actually narrow our guess as to when the pic was snapped based on the fact that the basketball marquee my parents bought the kids is visible, as well as the patch where we fixed the driveway.

Next, we put my sister's address in. She lives in Palm Harbor, Florida. We were whisked there quickly since GA and FL are close, and we clicked the camera on her street. We panned around and...there was her house....and OUR CAR WAS PARKED IN HER DRIVEWAY?!! Apparently, the pictures had been taken of her neighborhood last summer the week we spent our vacation with them. How hilarious is that?

If anyone hasn't played around with Google Earth lately, it really is a blast. We put Christian's home town in the search engine and found ourselves in the middle of Vichy, France. You can literally go where you want on a virtual vacation.

Here's the link for anyone who hasn't downloaded it yet. It's free!

http://earth.google.com/

I haven't tried to put Africa in there yet, but that's my next virtual trip!