Maps!

By the time I was sixteen and a half and the proud owner of a brand new driver's license, MapQuest's online service was two years old, and it quickly became one of my favorite websites. How else was I going to get to Louisville to shop at the "good mall" or to the bowling alley at Fort Knox to, um, make new friends? In college, MapQuest got my best friend and me to New Orleans for spring break and to Gatlinburg for a long weekend. And, of course, it got my friends and me to Cincinnati for concerts and Chicago (what an amazing and wonderful place for three kids from rural Kentucky) for Ikea and the tall buildings. And, then, on February 8, 2005 Google Maps (Google Local at the time) was born, and the world became an even happier place.

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Okay, so maybe online map tools aren't quite as poetic as my above exaggeration would make them out to be, but I'm still a big fan. I'm sure a print atlas would do just as well, but does anyone even use them anymore? And will an atlas show me a photo of my grandparents' house in Podunk, KY or a satellite image of the clear, blue waters of the Mediterranean?

The maps and public transit/walking directions are nice, too.