Since it was a bit cooler yesterday and the sun was shining, we decided that it was a great day to hop in the car and take a trip down to Stonington, CT.
Lately, I have been wandering around Google Earth checking out the Connecticut shoreline. It’s amazing how much neat stuff is around there. I really never knew that, but then again, how would an out-of-stater know about all of the hidden gems in another state. Right now, the Connecticut”ites” are saying, “Yeah right…hidden.”
There are so many neat little fishing/boat towns in this state. Stonington is definitely one of them. It kind of reminded me of Newport, RI and Salem, MA. There were lots of old houses, boats and some pretty cool streets. I took a whole lot of pictures so you can get a feel of what I am talking about.
Stonington Point looking at Stonington Breakwater and Mystic
Stonington Point looking at scuba divers
Stonington Point looking at Sandy Point
Stonington Point looking at Sandy Point and Napatree Point
Sea Gull at DuBois Beach
DuBois Beach sign
Stonington Lighthouse – Stonington Borough
Old Lighthouse Museum sign
Lily of the valley garden with wrought iron fence
Lily of the valley garden with wrought iron fence – view from sidewalk
Grape Hyacinth in front of stone steps
Nice lawn looking towards Lords Point
Rear of Stonington Harbor Yacht Club parking looking towards Lords Point
Defenders of Stonington sign
Rear of Stonging Yacht Club parking looking down Trumbull Street
If you don’t already know this about me, I’m a satellite image junkie. I used to be hooked on Google Maps and then graduated to Google Earth. One day, my mother introduced me to Live Maps and it was all over. The bird’s eye view is killer. It’s like you are sitting in a helicopter at about 1,000 feet looking around.
The reason I like these types of applications so much is that I have a horrible memory for places. I constantly think of stuff I have seen and then want to see it again. If we had transporters like they have on Star Trek, I would be everywhere all the time.
Live Maps is okay, but sometimes it runs slowly and takes a few moments for the photos to load. That bugs me. Also, the bird’s eye view isn’t available for every place I want to look. I mean, it’s really great exploring through Live Maps, but I need more.
This evening, I was thinking about various places I used to visit in Atlanta, GA. I was thinking about all the roads and different stores and restaurants. I think I have a more romantic view about what there was down there than what was reality. I went over to YouTube to see if I could find some videos of the stuff I was thinking about and only came across a few not-so-great videos. I was a little disappointed when a thought popped in my head. I said, “Hey man, why not download GoogleEarth again? I know they updated it and now offer Street View.” How great of an idea that was.
Well folks, I downloaded GoogleEarth and I have to say that my socks were knocked off. The last time I checked this program out is when they were just introducing 3D maps. Now, they have 3D, Street View and somehow, I can see what’s under the ocean water. I haven’t figured that out yet.
After playing around for a little while, I decided to give my mother a call to tell her that I was looking at her front door through Street View. I haven’t been down there in a while, but amazingly enough, all of my memories came back to me through all the photos that GoogleEarth offered me. It’s pretty incredible.
What’s really cool is the fact that you can use GoogleEarth for so many things, like checking out a neighborhood if you are interested in moving there, you can reminisce about places you used to live and you can even check stuff out while you are on the phone with people to get a better picture of what in the world they are talking about. I think I am going to use this the next time I talk to my father about where he works.
Okay, enough talk. Take a look at these videos to see what I am trying to get at. Then, go ahead and download your own copy of GoogleEarth and start having some fun.
Yesterday, while out and about, Laura and I decided to do a drive-by at the University of Connecticut, or better know as UConn in Storrs, CT. I took a gander at this area on Google Earth a few times and we actually wanted to visit for some time, but never got around to it. Now that we’re about 20 minutes from the town, it’s much easier to get it done.
Now, if you aren’t familiar with UConn, it’s basically the whole town of Storrs. I am not sure if the residents would agree with me, but that’s the way it seemed. I think it’s kind of like State College, PA and Penn State. Either way, it was pretty cool and much larger than I imagined. It was actually the biggest college I have ever visted.
Too bad it was raining and so gloomy out. I took the above photos while we were driving. We did a little zoom zoom through part of the campus.
When I was going to Binghamton University, I had a roommate who just came from Penn State. He said it took a half-hour to get anywhere on campus. That’s what it seemed like here.
From subterranean Martians to female hysteria, people have been known to believe some pretty bizarre things. What does it take to make a believable scientific theory? Apparently, not much. Here are five of the strangest examples and who knows what people will find hilariously untrue from our era in 50 years?
There are a lot of web hosting companies out there with unusual, strange, or just plain weird names (and URLs). We have collected some of the strangest ones in this post.
Satellite imagery used to be the exclusive domain of governments and spy agencies, but ever since Google Maps and Google Earth we can all get to see weird things!
