Take a walk through my neighborhood!

Ok, so the fine folks at Google (bless their innovating hearts) have just come out with what they call "Street View" in several cities throughout the country: San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Vegas, Denver, Orlando, Miami and last but not least New York City.

So, I thought I'd give you all a taste of it as well as a view of my new neighborhood. This is going to be an interactive blog, and I will try to make it as easy as possible.

1. Start by clicking here
2. Put in this address: 50 W 81st St, New York, NY 10024
3. Click on "Street View" in the upper right corner of the map
4. Put the little yellow man on top of the green arrow that points to the address you searched for. If he's already there, just click on the man and a photo will pop up. When you do, you should be looking at the front of my building. There's a rounded green awning with whit trim.
5. Now, turn around and take a look at the Museum of Natural History. You can do this by clicking on the icon above the plus sign that points down and to the left. This will rotate your view couterclockwise. Click it 4 times and you're looking through the trees toward the Hayden Planetarium, which is part of the Museum.
   
6. Now, I want to take you for a walk elsewhere, so go ahead and click the X in the top corner of the bubble with the picture in it. The picture should disappear and you'll see the map with all the streets lined in blue. If you want to move the view of the map, you just click anywhere and hold the click and then drag the picture. Then, to look somewhere on the street, go ahead and get the little gold man and click on him, pulling him wherever you want to look.
1. Take some time exploring and getting used to the street view. You can do things like rotate the view (by clicking the button above the plus that I mentioned above), walking up and down the street (by clicking on the arrows on the imaginary translucent lines) and even spinning around (by clicking and dragging the photo itself).
7. Now, let's lo0k at some places I enjoy. First, there's my Starbucks. You can see this by taking the little man and placing him between 81st and 82nd streets on Columbus. Rotate until you are looking west and then use the arrows on the photo to head in either direction until you see a Starbucks. You'll recognize it by the round green logo above the door.
8. Want to take a walk in the park? Look to the east (toward that giant green area!) and you'll see a road running north and south on the east side. It has the blue outline (unlike the road on the west side) and is called "Central Park E. Dr." Drop the little man just north of the end of "Dr" and rotate conter clockwise and you'll see some folks frolicking in Central Park on (presumably) a Saturday afternoon. Who knows, maybe I'm in the photo!

Well, feel free to tour around a little more. I must admit, it's tough to type these directions, but please feel free to look around at various places. Here are some addresses you might find interesting:

180 Maiden Lane, New York, NY - My work
34th and Broadway, New York, NY - Macy's in Herald Square
42nd and Broadway, New York, NY - Times Square
46 Church St., New York, NY - site of the World Trade Center
William Street and Wall Street, New York, NY - look down Wall Street

You can copy and paste each of these addresses and have a look around. Feel free to email me if you have a question or leave it in a comment.