10 Things to do in Boston in the Summer

10 weeks in Boston are simply not enough to feel the energy of the city (glorified town?). However, to maximize your experience and derive optimum utility from those 10 weeks, consider the following a tried and trusted guide.

1. Take a boat ride: There are tons of activities on the water during the summer — movie screenings, band performances, whale watching tours and occasional lonely mid-day strolls in crisply ironed formals. Take a tour of the Boston harbor on a boat and wave at random people passing by on their own, probably private, boats.
2. Find solace from the heat: Wade indoors at a museum or a bookstore to escape the heat wave outside and observe people more than the actual content of the building (a personal favorite — Brookline Booksmith or the Harvard Bookstore). Eat a cannoli after.
3. Eat a lobster roll: For non-vegetarians, find a cute place that serves fresh catch preferably paired with Cape Cod sea salt & vinegar chips and make sure everyone on your social media knows you’re about to devour this meal. Wash it down with some Sam Adams if it isn’t the middle of a work day…or even if it is.
4. Befriend trains: Take the T, the Commuter Rail and the Amtrak to transport yourself to different places. Sometimes, you will be so tipsy that you will get on the train going the other way and will only realize 6 stops in and will continue on to the 7th because you were busy texting your friends and telling them what a fool you are.
5. Go to Summit Ave: Watch the sky change colors as you listen to a sunset playlist and passively inhale marijuana being smoked next to you. Sit on the grass because you want to avoid the public shame of having your hammock sink immediately to the ground when you plonk your butt down on it thanks to all the Dunkin you’ve been drinking. You can take a book, but you will only watch the sky.
6. Dance at Havana Club: There is a possibility that you form a bond with a group of ladies with whom you have very little in common, and somehow you have learned so much about each other’s lives over High Noons and leftover 4th of July fireworks crackling in the distance. You decide to go to Havana and your recently formed friendship grows even stronger in the middle of the dance floor surrounded by sweaty men who keep trying to drag you into a salsa embrace and you holler ‘I’m with her!!’ over Latin music and continue to sway and drink your Tequila Sunrise in the safety of your girlfriends.
7. Attend a game at Fenway: Score tickets to a baseball game even if you remotely know anything about the Red Sox or the sport but go because everyone talks about the atmosphere at Fenway and how it is so uplifting — and oh, it is. Sweat, eat a hotdog, drink some beer, buy yourself a cap, watch the screen in awe at very public proposals, sway to Dua Lipa and try to catch a baseball — go for the sport, stay for the vibe.
8. Participate in intellectual conversation: Meet some wicked smaaht people at a barbecue of a friend of a friend’s primarily populated by people who studied philosophy, some form of medicine, and probably some finance and of course the token techie who works at an early-stage biotech start-up in Kendall Square. Listen in wonder as they debate whether a hotdog is a sandwich, whether slides are sandals and why TJ’s Wildberry Cheesecake-flavored ice cream is only a summertime special — for them, this is everyday banter; for you, this is elitist fly-on-the-wall business.
9. Watch the fireworks: If you’re in the city for the 4th of July, go watch the fireworks by the Charles River — granted, there are multiple places to watch the fireworks — but if you want to eavesdrop on the best conversation, go to the Charles. Get J.P. Licks on Newbury Street on your way there — get just one scoop because the server will 100% give you extra and it will melt all over your fingers and feet and you will have to stand like that for 30 minutes staring at the sky and messily licking it off the corner of your mouth amongst the mostly upward-looking crowd.
10. Catch feels: Develop unrealistic and irrational feelings for someone you just met and probably will never meet again — let your heart make all the decisions rather than your head. They are wonderful and conversational and have the best recommendations for living in Boston that both them and the city make you not want to leave. While talking about the possibility of staying in touch your heart aches to make any eye contact so you stare out into the distance, toward the orange sun setting over the silhouette of this magnificent city that took you in for 10 weeks, gave you so much and asked for nothing in return but the chance to meet again.

Thank you, Boston, for a lovely summer. ❤