The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

Words by: Sarah Stanley

Image by: e (thanks to randy son of robert)

An able-bodied young female professional with, let’s say, no more than twenty dollars in her hand, has ahead of her a lovely day out in Boston.  Will she have fun?? Will she end the day feeling satisfied??  Is happiness in a city truly attainable with just thirty dollars to spend?!  I say, let’s find out.

*Wake up and realize that I’m to operate within a $20 spending limit today. So, as sleep is free, log in another hour or so.  Then, time to fuel up for the morning’s run - make coffee and oatmeal. The usual. ($0)

*Set off for the ‘bridge loop’, a popular running route around the Charles River. The setting is perfect and the city’s people are out, running, walking, playing, sunbathing - we’re all clearly in agreement that passing time along the Charles, with its paths and parks and whole water-factor - not to mention, fantastic views of the Back Bay skyline - is an ideal (and free!) respite to city life. ($0)

*Run, check. Then home to shower up and eat a quick lunch before heading back out to pay a visit to my friend Tim, who works at the Ralph Lauren over on ritzy Newbury Street, Boston’s famous shopping row (preferred by the tourist and the international crowds alike).  Decide to forego the T (Boston’s subway system, $2 a ride) and head over to Newbury on foot. Visiting Tim at work provides a great excuse for a casual Boston walking tour: cutting up through heartbreakingly-quaint Beacon Hill with its old crooked brick sidewalks lining near-vertical streets; then, past our rather grand State House; down into the Boston Common; and a quick cross over into the Public Gardens. Hello, swans and willow trees! ($0)

*Maneuver my way through the packs of Newbury tourists and distracted shoppers over to lovely navy-awning’d Ralph Lauren.  Tim’s able to slip away for a bit so we head a block over to Commonwealth Avenue and take a pleasant stroll down the grassy mall that cuts through the middle of the famous residential street. So quintessential, turn-of-the-century, Gilded-Age Boston – a great setting for great conversation. ($0)

*Part ways with Tim and decide that a change of scenery is in order - one can only take so much Brahmin in one day.  Without having a car, the fastest and easiest way to escape is by taking the T over the river to and into Cambridge.  To Harvard she goes! ($2 T ride)

*Arrive in Harvard Square and decide that there’s no way I’m coming all the way out here (aka 15 minute T-ride) without getting a yogurty creation at the local PinkBerry knock-off.  Why Boston proper has not yet caught on to the perfection (and cashcow) that is the yogurty-creation concept of PinkBerry and others, I truly do not understand. ($4.50ish)

*Settle down with my pretty faux-PinkBerry creation in Harvard Yard. Time to pretend I’m not just another 24-year-old yogurt fanatic from the working world, but instead, a real-live Harvard student! Spend in-character time reading, snacking, and observing.  So many great outfits to be seen in this area. Again, Boston - take note. ($0)

*Role-playing alone starts to get old; time to re-introduce a familiar face into the day. Call friend Ryan to meet up for a beer someplace where we can still take advantage of the outdoors.  We settle on the Barking Crab, a stilted shack of sorts sitting atop the Boston Harbor. Bring on the lobster traps and plastic-cupped Sam Summers; bring on Boston. ($2 T ride)

*Fun and live music abound.  Because the spending limit has nearly been reached, am able to pressure Ryan into paying for one of my three beers. ($10)

*Am feeling tired, pretty buzzed, and nearly out of money.  All signs definitely point homeward.  Take the short walk along the harbor and back to my neighborhood, the North End. Maybe it’s the beers, but seeing the Harbor Islands scattered all across the water, and knowing that beyond them lies the open Atlantic, I am overtaken by love for my adopted home. How thankful I am that vision is free!, I think…and then realize that I may be a bit more buzzed than I’d originally thought. To home I go!

Day complete; total: $18.50 (approximately)

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