Last week, Google added an interactive bicycle route mapping feature to their popular Google Maps. Still in its beta version, the feature is designed to "include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes," according to Peter Smith.

The good news for Ann Arbor bike commuters and bike enthusiasts is that Tree Town is already part of their mapped data, so you can try out their suggested routes right away. Although I wasn't in love with the route they mapped for my commute to work, the map did highlight -- in bright green -- some paved trails that I would definitely use for commuting on two wheels. The AADL also has books on the rise of cycling, such as Pedal Power by J. Harry Wray and Bicycling Magazine's Guide to Bike Touring by Doug Donaldson.

Calvin's father, in the timeless youth graphic novels, Calvin and Hobbes, often insists that outdoor activities with the family will help "build character" in his son, though Calvin himself clearly has other ideas. If you are looking for some similar character-building activities with the family this Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010, consider the Waterloo Recreation Area's investigative program, "The Mystery of the Missing Groundhog", and then head out to the trails on a search for some winter wildlife.

Looking for something closer to Ann Arbor? Check out Saturday's daytime hike, the Winter Woods Walk, through County Farm Park where a guide will lead you on and off the trails looking for plants and wildlife. Or try Leslie Science Center's nocturnal Winter Night Walk which caps off a crisp night trail hike with a lively campfire.

If you can't make these weekend events, check out the following Ann Arbor trail guides from the AADL: Riverwalks Ann Arbor and Footloose in Ann Arbor.

Tori Murden McClure has an AB from Smith College, a master’s in divinity from Harvard, a JD from the University of Louisville, and an MFA from Spalding University. Very impressive -- as is her new book, A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean. Currently vice president at Spalding, McClure is the first woman to row alone across an ocean. This beautifully written memoir offers readers a spectacular blend of adventure, romance, and self discovery.

On our new book shelf here at the AADL you can pick up a copy of The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life, written by Pam Grout & published by National Geographic. The author's intent, as she states in the introduction, is to alter your idea of what vacation is meant to be and offer you the potential to change your life. The experiences are divided into four categories: arts and crafts getaways, learning retreats, volunteer vacations, and wellness escapes. Even if you can't afford some of the fabulous ideas set forth in this book, it's still enjoyable to read about them. Consider a three-day mahout (elephant wrangler) training course in Thailand. Spend a month working for African Impact, a lion rehabilitation center in Zimbabwe. Master the art of blending scotch at the Glengoyne Distillery in the Scottish highlands. Ride horses to Machu Picchu's sacred sister city, Choquequirao, Peru.
The trip that caught my attention is run by COBATI (Community-Based Tourism Initiatives) in Kampala, Uganda. Instead of a typical African safari package that does little to benefit the locals, COBATI homestays offer the amazing opportunity to stay in small, rural villages and learn about the real Uganda. Visit banana plantations, stay with midwives, learn beekeeping & mushroom growing, attend community weddings, visit flower farms and see homesteads with Ankole longhorn cattle (indigenous to Uganda for at least seven centuries). Interested? Visit www.cobati.or.ug or head to the library for a copy of this unique travel guide.

Art and Maps

Interested in maps? Art? How about artistic maps? The University of Michigan Map Library is holding an open house tomorrow, March 19th, from 4pm-7pm. The Map Library is on the 8th floor of the Harlan Hatcher Library on UM's central campus. Come for the maps, stay for the exhilarating view of campus! Map Library staff will be available to answer any questions you might have about the maps on display or the collection in general.

The Map Library holds these open houses the 3rd Thursday of each month.

Light refreshments will be served.

Whether you are a well-seasoned traveller with a mangled passport, or someone who rarely leaves your spot on the couch, it's likely you will find inspiration in A Rough guide to the world : Make the most of your time on earth. This hefty book is crammed full of amazing travel experiences grouped according to global areas, starting with Britain & Ireland, and finishing with The Polar Regions (you didn't think they'd forget the North and South Pole, did you?). Seeking a natural miracle? Visit Iguazu Falls in Argentina - more than two hundred cascades thundering over an eighty meter cliff, all surrounded by lush tropical forest. Seeking an event to remember? Try April 30th/Queen's Day in Amsterdam (police are forbidden to interfere with any activity, no matter how outrageous). Seeking a wonder of the ancient world? Try the unparalleled Roman archaeological site of Baalbek in Lebanon. (In the words of Robert Byron, it "dwarfs New York into a home of ants".) Seeking a journey closer to home? Grab your bike and ride the Slickrock in Moab, Utah. Personally, I am inspired to plan a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lalibela in Ethiopia. I'll share my injera with you if you'll pay for my plane ticket!

olympics

If you are heading to Beijing to support our atheletes, you might want to check out this blog site before packing your bags. Globespotters offers urban advice from reporters who live there.

Beijing Basics are for smart travelers who plan ahead - with information from airports, getting into town, using the subways, to finding an English-speaking doctor.

If your travel plans include other equally exotic locales such as Mumbai, Bangkok, Moscow or Istanbul, you will be glad you did you homework. Travel safe.

Google Maps

Type in an address in Ann Arbor in Google Maps and you can now see the Street View.

Street View gives you a photographic view of the street and allows you to move up and down the block and to pan to the right or left and to zoom in on houses or businesses or pedestrians. The gas station at Packard and Stadium has gas for sale for $2.89/gallon so the drive-by must have been a while ago. It was garbage day at my house. You can see the garbage bin, the recycle bins, and the compost bin in front of the house. The addresses on streets are approximate so you may have to move up or down the block to find the address you are seeking.

Arbor Update has a blog about Street View. Trying to sleuth the exact date/dates seems to be one of the pleasures for users. Some areas appear to have been covered on a football Saturday.

Take a look. Interesting and fun. The Michigan Theater was showing Born into Brothels. You cannot quite read the menu posted outside Zanzibar. The Y is still standing across from the Downtown Library.

Upside Down World Map

The Downtown Library has folding and flat maps on the Second Floor.

All the folding maps circulate for four weeks and some of the flat maps do (the ones that do not have a Reference label).

The most recent batch of additional maps focused on Europe and Central and South America. The international maps in the folding map files are filed under the country. Maps for the states of New York, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio were also purchased.

Mapping the world onto a flat surface requires the selection of a projection, an orientation, and a projection surface. The Upside Down World Map (World folding map file) has Australia and New Zealand centered at the top of the map. The Peters World Map (World folding map file) is centered on the Pacific Ocean and uses an equal-area projection that provides a very different view of the World than the standard Atlantic Ocean centered Mercator projection map. In the flat map case is a World Map from National Geographic with a lovely antiqued look that uses four circles to map the world: the Western Hemisphere, the Eastern Hemisphere, the South Polar Region, and the North Polar Region.