What are some of the cooler things that you’ve found in Google Maps?
A little while back someone pointed out that if you go to street level view on the White House, you can get to a tour of it.
I discovered that a certain street on Martha’s Vineyard goes all the way onto the ferry.
Any others?
The two I know:
Ask for walking directions from [anywhere] to “Mordor”.
Ask for driving directions that require crossing the Pacific ocean. Examine the ocean-crossing step carefully.
By the way, the walking directions in the White House aren’t that uncommon: the downtown Chicago Macy*s, for example, has departments mapped out if you zoom in.
That gets me to Scollay Square in Boston.
I just discovered earlier this week you can tool around the San Diego Zoo.
Ooh, very cool!
Look carefully at the walking directions…
“Be careful! One does not simply walk into Mordor.”
I’m not seeing that.
The other day I was looking for convenience stores in a particular area and I found thistiny hole-in-the-wall, unremarkable-in-every-way shop, that takes you inside the store. This is not some charmingly rundown Seattle landmark, it’s just nothing. I’ve never seen a place like that let you look inside, and I find it really strange.
If you go into street view at Legoland in CA, the little yellow guy is a lego-guy. (In the side window where you can pick which way to turn him…)
You have to start from Rivendell.
That’s pretty cool!
Quite by accident, I found this. Street level view is at night, but go in any direction and it’s daytime again.
Get directions from somewhere in the US, to somewhere in Australasia (anywhere? I believe it works for destinations in Japan and Australia, anyway) and you’ll be routed via Seattle, then told to kayak across the Pacific.
One that’s now gone: a few years back, I wanted to get driving directions to a place in Delaware. I glanced at the results and thought “well, it shouldn’t take THAT long 
”.
Then I figured out that there is a Newark - in Germany (Deutchland)… and “Newark, DE” was misinterpreted!! IIRC, you had to swim across the atlantic, in 30 days, which is pretty ridiculous (who can keep up 100 miles a day for a MONTH???).
I’ve had seasons change from one frame to the next, then change right back. It’s either a matter of the cross street being filmed a different time of year (and the cross-street’s images took over for that frame), or they re-recorded and missed a frame.
OK, it’s not the mainland, but you can walk with the penguins on an Antarctic island :).
Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh staged a bunch of scenes to be captured by streetview including a marching band, marathon runners, a birdman, a medieval duel, and other things.
Mine gives the “one does not simply walk into Mordor” message and starts at Rivendell Bicycle Works in Alameda but for some odd reason has Kirsten Weiss, Financial Advisor in San Mateo as the location of Mordor.
That is very cool, thank you!
Not sure if this qualifies, but there used to be a gigantic KFC logo in the middle of the desert. Looks like it’s not there anymore though.