Google Maps - Function and Art

I've added a few more Google Maps to the site, in both the Beaches and Restaurants sections. Each of these additions utilize Google Maps in different ways, for both art and functionality, respectively.

Beaches
As mentioned awhile back, Google Maps was recently updated with new satellite imagery in the Ka'anapali area and in other parts of West Maui. Looking for ways to share this new aerial beauty relatively easily, I was inspired to use this new imagery as a different art form to showcase some of the beauty of Maui's beaches.

What you're find on the various beach pages, such as Ka'anapali Beach here, is a full bird's eye view of each beach zoomed in to the best range to fit the page layout. From here, you can see from up above what Maui visitors see from the sandy shores, and gain a better appreciation for the true beauty of these popular spots.

Restaurants
For the restaurant side of things, I was also inspired to add a little functionality with Google Maps. This particular inspiration came from a local portal site near home that I stumbled across while searching for a Chinese restaurant (I can't remember the particular site at the moment). Among all the basics, it featured a little map inlet that showed about a 2-3 block radius of where the restaurant was located. I thought it'd be easy for the Maui restaurants featured here.

So that's what I did, and actually took it a step further by adding two map inlets. The first follows the original idea, having a 2-3 block radius around the restaurant location, just to get your bearings. The second map is more of an island-level view to get a better idea of what part of Maui the restaurant is located.

To get a better idea of what it looks like, check out the Cheeseburger in Paradise page in the restaurants section, which happens to be the first restaurant we stop at for dinner when we visit Maui.