The funschoolers visit Google!

One of the unplanned side benefits of kiddo's debate class was meeting S and his lovely mom, N. N, works at Google's HQ. She had invited us to visit so yesterday, we finally did and had a very fun tour of the campus in Mountain View.

The highlights:

Google is dotted with various cafeterias for its employees. The food is not just your average cafe fare...it's restaurant-quality gourmet cuisine with some of the ingredients grown on site!

I had Indian. Kiddo had pizza.

Top L: One of the cafes. Top R: Pretty architecture.
Bottom L: Even the washrooms are high-tech!
Bottom Middle: A nap center. Bottom Right: Cute Androids.

The boys pretend to be
zombies in the ball pit.

Meeting the Predator.

N really spoiled kiddo by buying him a few souvenirs at the resident Google Store (honestly, the place is almost like a corporate theme park!) and bringing him to all the cool hang-outs. Kiddo and his buddy had a fun time in the ball pit. We were also blown-over by the well-equipped in-house gym. I went, err, google-eyed over the various pretty couches (it reminded me of a mini IKEA) and pretty little nooks for employee R&R.

Kiddo is now considering a career with Google. I'm not sure if it's because of its reputation for innovation (watch the video!) or the obviously very generous benefits (I think it's the latter. I shouldn't have let him have that sinfully delicious chocolate cake for dessert!).