The Big Eye in the Sky

Revolutionary. Google Maps not only provides a traditional online map of any location you input, it now offers detailed satellite photograph images of that same location, in varying degrees of detail. You can input your home address and find a clear satellite image of your roof, your backyard, the street, the trees, neighboring houses, and occasionally even stray people or pets! And you can scroll the image in any direction and also, zoom in and out. Imagine inputting any address and having an actual bird's eye photographic image of that location in seconds. A restaurant in Napa Valley, a cafe in Palo Alto, an office building in San Francisco, the Berkeley campus, a post office in Oakland, the tea garden at Golden Gate Park, the ferry station on Angel Island, the Northstar ski lifts at Lake Tahoe, Larry Ellison's medieval Japanese compound in Woodside... ad infinitem. Without getting into the thorny and inevitable matters of privacy and security, I have to say this will be my new toy for the next few days. Here is our home on Crystal Springs Road as seen via the "satellite" option in Google Maps (link here). And here is the Sawyer Camp Trail part of Crystal Springs reservoir (link here).

Biking Crystal Springs

The past two weekends, T and I have been setting aside some time on Saturday mornings to bike along the six-mile path that runs alongside the lower Crystal Springs reservoir from San Mateo through Hillsborough to the northern end of Burlingame. Each time, the weather has been spectacular. Mild with a gentle breeze from the ocean winds blowing over the hills on the other end of the reservoir. This past weekend, we made it to the end of the trail, a wonderful spot at the rim of a tall dyke with views of the reservoir stretching the entire length south to Palo Alto and north a short ways up to the high cliffs of Pacifica. And on the ride back to the trailhead, we came across some young deer feeding along the edge of the path. This has to be one of the best parts about living on Crystal Springs Road, the "backyard" of scenic and expansive greenspace.