Making them Live

When you research your plots, characters, or events in your work do you actually find situations or places where they might go in real life? Or do you let your imagination just do the 'investigation for you? If one of your sub-characters is a Seattle injury lawyer do you check out personal injury lawyers and see how they work, what their descriptions of their services entail? Or do you just let it be enough to know they are a personal injury lawyer that lives or works in the Seattle area? Do you Google Map Seattle? Do you Google Seattle tourism to see what points of interest there are? Research for ficton writers used to mean getting in the car, on a bus, train, or plane and going to the areas where their characters walked, lived and breathed. It isn't necessary anymore, your fingers can do the work for you and it is all online but it is still necessary to 'travel' and experience the areas to make them live on paper.