re: Going to Boston for the first time this weekend. Looking for things to do.

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but watch out cause their students will just jump right into the crosswalks with not a single glance at traffic. I guess it's some yankee rule to where they can walk wherever the hell they want.

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Don't even think about driving in or near Boston. Just don't.

Walk as much as you can stand. Common, Public Garden, Beacon Hill, Downtown, Esplanade, Back Bay (try to take a long walk down the Comm Ave Mall, and just look around at everything).

Get whatever T pass makes sense and ride the T to the squayahs -- Harvard Square, Kenmore Square (Fenway, BU, Harvard Med).

You won't see or do everything everybody tells you in 4 days; it's a great city for just being there and looking at stuff and going with the flow.

There are a bazillion colleges in Boston -- lots and lots of students, grad students, academics in general out on the streets and local places that serve them. Maybe try to plug into what's going on in that world (but I can't recommend how).

Just walk around.

I'll tell you one thing that no one else will, and I use it on every 'what to do in Boston' thread --

If you get a chance, take a camera, and walk across the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Avenue, it connects Back Bay and MIT) in the afternoon, when the sun is past its high point but not too near twilight. Stay on the side of the road closer to downtown (right side as you go from Boston toward Cambridge). About half way or two-thirds of the way across, turn and look at downtown. Start taking pictures. That view ranges from really nice to abso-freaking-lutely spectacular, depending on the lighting and where the sailboats are on the river.

Have fun, and please check back in and let us know what you did and how you liked it. Everybody asks, but nobody ever reports back.

Oh yeah -- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum might also be the suggested Art museum.