Interactive Travel Map

1. This is an interactive travel map...that works just like Google Maps only it's customized with information that I've put on here about our adventures in travel.

Double click anywhere on the map and it will recenter on that point and zoom in one spot. Keep double clicking and it will continue to zoom in as far as you want to go.

Multiple themes for the map

2. In the upper left hand corner, select a theme from the drop down menu. The map will only show those icons that are included in that theme. You can switch to any theme that you like. The map will automatically default to "all icons" upon start up.

Click icons to see pop up windows

3. Most of the icons have a pop-up window attached to it. Just click on the icon and the window will open automatically. To close the window, click anywhere not on the window and it will automatically close.

Zoom in to regions to see clustered icons

4. In one region, say the Los Angeles region, there may be many icons groups together that you can't see from the default "world" view. Zoom in more closely into that region to see the individual icons.

Alternative ways to zoom into a region

5. Here's another way to quickly zoom into a particular region with icons. First, select an icon to open its window. Second, Drag the zoom slide into your desired level. Zooming in with the icon window open will automatically recenter the map on the icon and its open window. See the example to the left.

Three distinct map views

6. There are three map buttons in the upper right hand corner of the map. You can flip between pure map view, satellite view or hybrid view, which shows the satellite view along with the map's notations of streets, cities, country boundaries, etc. You can seemlessly flip between maps without losing your current position.

See real satellite photos

7. If you zoom far enough in, you can click the "satellite" button to view a satellite image of the landscape. These images can be incredibly detailed. The picture on the left is of our current residence in Pasadena. There are many detailed maps of countries included in Google Maps. Others, like China, Korea, etc. only have fuzzy high level photos. But most places in Europe, North America, Japan, India and others have very detailed maps in their local language.

Most of the icons in the map have been placed at the exact spot. So zoom in and check it out! Others, however, are just best guess approximations of their location.

Return to default view

8. To return to the default view, please click the center button of the navigation area in the upper left hand corner of the map. This will take you to the view of the world. Doing this will not change the map view, nor will it change your selection from the drop down menu.