Last Thursday, after a visit to the University of Florida, I headed to Boston to observe MIT’s annual 6.370 Programming Competition.  I needed a “real” game developer to come with me (since as a recruiter, I have zero credibility, right?) and I asked my buddy from Orlando, Dave, to head with me.  He’s like the perfect guy for this stuff – he’s personable, knowledgable, looks like he’s still in his early 20s (when he’s really not), and has been doing this stuff forever.  He also really enjoys giving talks and mingling (which is often hard to find in programmers) so he’s a natural. 

Well, when I invited Dave, I didn’t realize he had never been to Boston (yes, I live in a sheltered world where I assume EVERYONE must have visited Boston at least once).  Thankfully, he likes to travel and so signed up despite the 30 inches of snow on the ground J. 

On Friday, we had a long afternoon of schmoozing and scouting talent at two different events (some day soon you'll see inserted photos of Boston/Charles River).  After all of the socializing, I asked Dave what he wanted to do – he looked a little tired, but not exhausted, so I thought he could handle a little shopping.  We got on the “T” and headed to my favorite Boston shopping haunt – Filene’s Basement.  Now, FB is a huge undertaking.  It’s really daunting and should only be shopped by those who a) shop a lot; b) like a huge bargain (and shop a lot so they know they’re getting a good bargain); and c) don’t mind digging through bins/racks and generally mass chaos & disorganization.  I tried to warn Dave and he seemed up for it, but as soon as we got there his eyes glazed over and I started to get worried I would lose him for the night.  Turns out, he survived, but I only did a quick 30 minute breeze through and we left without purchasing anything.  From there, the cold Boston air (and I mean, cold, cold, cold) woke us up and we walked over toward Fanueil Hall so he could see that, stopped by Starbucks, and then kept walking through Haymarket over to the North End for dinner.

We had dinner at one of the hundreds of Italian restaurants in the North End – it was so cold that night, that none of these places had a line.  You could eat anywhere that night.  After dinner we stopped by Mike’s Pastries which had a short line, but nothing insane like it sometimes is – and grabbed some goodies to go.   There is no better dessert than a black & white cookie.

We headed back to Cambridge on the “T” and ate our goodies at the hotel.  From there, we motivated and looked for a place to go out.  Everywhere was totally dead.  I mean, I understand that Harvard was in intersession, but it was a ghost town in Harvard Square.  We settled on Brother Jimmy’s just because we could watch sports there and hung out and eventually got up and danced with the group of 21 year-olds (or at least they had ID that said they were 21) until we were exhausted. 

On Saturday, we had lunch at Legal Seafood (again, Dave needed the FULL Boston experience) and then we started the long walk.  I warned him that we were in for quite a bit of walking, and he seemed up for it.  I mean, Boston is really a city that needs to be walked – even with snow piled up everywhere.  I had good boots on (Dave didn’t – he had nice brown shoes that I worried about all weekend) and stomped all over.  We took the T over to BU so I could walk around there and go to the bookstore for some rah-rah BU stuff – and he could see Fenway Park.  From there we walked up Comm Ave over to Newbury Street for, guess what, more SHOPPING.  We shopped down Newbury Street, I took Dave over to see the Bull/Finch (Cheers bar), Boston Common, and the Statehouse.  Then it was back to MIT for the finals of the competition which were very entertaining.  I ran into a number of students that I know from my Microsoft days, and that was really fun.  Picked up myself a free Google shirt, too.  Now, I’m not a big Google fan, but like any other geek, I’ll take a free t-shirt when offered J.

When that finally ended around 9:30, we headed over to the Border Café for dinner, which was a big mistake only because we had to wait for 40 minutes for a table and you really shouldn’t have dinner around 11:00 at night.  I was so starving but then today – I feel so ill …

Anyway, I think Dave had a pretty good time in Boston – if he didn’t, oh well, sorry.  It was a free trip, right?  I had a good time.  Boston is a great city and I kind of miss going there almost every week ;-).  Plus, showing a newbie around was super cool.  Dave could be scarred for life from all the shopping but hey - he's being trained for some future wife.