A Very Cool Site

Someone, I wish I could remember who (may have been a mailing list post), sent me an email about one of those satellite map websites that I think is among the best I've seen yet. It's called Windows Live Local. Registration is free. Type in an address and you get a satellite view of the address. You can often choose between "Road" view, where it shows you the neighborhood surrounding the address you typed in; "Aerial" view, which gives you an over head shot of the area; and "Bird's Eye" view, which gives you overhead, close-up views of the address you typed. You can then use the scroll button on the mouse to zoom in or zoom out. You can then add pushpins to show important addresses for your own use.

I've spent about an hour a day this week on this site, exploring my childhood neighborhood, my grandparents' house (or what used to be a house they lived in), and the city I grew up in itself. It was rather fun, I admit, to see what the modern-day neighborhood looks like (didn't change a whole lot in the past 30 years, actually, other than some additions to houses).

Today I entered in the addresses I have for some of my ancestors in Pittston, Luzerne County, PA and Nanticoke, Luzerne County, PA. The Bird's Eye view wasn't available, but the aerial was.

Speaking of Luzerne County PA, which includes Wilkes-Barre, I hope anyone there reading this came through the flooding without a scratch.