They say "a picture is worth 1000 words" - and I think it might be more like 2000 when it comes to planning out fun/interesting things to do in  a new city! I'm going to the SAS Global Forum (#SASGF) conference in Orlando this year, and I was wondering where the conference hotel was in relation to the fun things to do in the area. So, of course I plotted it all out on a map, using SAS! You might enjoy seeing how I created the map, and you might find the map itself useful if you ever visit Orlando.

First, I compiled a list of things to do in Orlando (using web searches & asking my friends for recommendations). I estimated a latitude/longitude value for each thing, and read them into a SAS dataset using code like this ...

I then created a scatter plot of the locations, and suppressed all the axes (note that the yellow marker is the main conference hotel) ...

Next, I wrote SAS code to download the 16 slippy map tiles (16 separate png images) at zoom level 12 for the area of interest, and I annotated the 16 tiles behind the scatter plot.

And now for the cool part ... In my maps, I often like to add a little graphic element to let people quickly/easily know what the map represents. In my Las Vegas map, I created my own version of the famous 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign. The 'Welcome to Orlando' sign isn't quite as fancy, but I thought it would be a nice touch to add to this map. I could have found an image of the sign, and annotated the image ... but where's the fun in that?!? So I decided to create my own version of the sign using simple annotated graphical shapes and text.

First, I created a blue box.

Then I added some blue bubbles with slightly smaller lighter-colored bubbles inside them.

Then, I overlaid a box using the light color, followed by a slightly smaller blue box.

Then a couple more blue bubbles, so fill-in some on the left and right sides.

Adding some text almost finished the sign! ... But it still needed a little something to set it off!

And that special something is the skyline. I got a skyline image, and modified it in Photoshop Elements, making the background transparent and the buildings the same color as my sign. I then used annotate to add the image seamlessly in the desired location. Wow - did you know SAS could do all that!?!

I think the welcome sign really helps spice up an otherwise boring street map! Click the map image below to see the interactive version, where the markers have mouse-over text (and they drill down to a Google search on each attraction).

What are your favorite things to do in Orlando? Did I leave out anything?!? Feel free to leave a comment ...