What is Third Wave? Coffee culture has reached what is being referred to as “Third Wave” coffee. The basis is that three major waves of coffee consumption have occurred since the 90s, culminating in the small batch artisanal coffee shops that are no longer only found in hipster enclaves like Williamsburg. In fact these have become so popular that major chains are now gobbling them up. In the first wave, home consumption was king.

On day two of our Quebecois beercation, we drive from Montreal to Quebec City in search of the perfect brew. We also stop at Quebec’s highest waterfall and learn why the dream of the 90s is still alive outside Quebec, but only on Valentine’s day. Part one of the beercation in Montreal can be found here. St-Viateur Bagels Before leaving Montreal, we stop at St-Viateur bagels, a bagel shop which has been wood oven cooking bagels in the Montreal style since 1957.

You may be thinking Montreal and Quebec aren’t beer towns. That’s where you’d be wrong. Both towns have a passion for beer that trails only their passion for hockey and gravy covered cheese curds and fries. Though the spoken language may be different, these towns share a love for the common language of good beer, and most interestingly, what seems to be a particular specialization in excellent Belgian style ales.

There are meals in life that are great for many reasons. Sometimes a waiter can stand out as very knowledgeable, or perfectly figure out your likes and preferences and tailor suggestions to you. Other times a setting may make the meal, such as our incredible seafood on the Croatian Island of Hvar under the night sky with the sea breeze drifting in. Sometimes instead the food can speak for itself and be perfection of a specific technique or wildly imaginative.

The East Village of New York is rapidly becoming nirvana for great food, especially international. The Filipino, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, and even Ethiopian options here are top notch. In fact there are so many great options these days, that you can spend a full day sampling just on St. Marks between 1st and 3rd Avenues and only hit a small portion of them. Here are the highlights that should be on your bucket list.

2014 was the first year of my newfound hobby of marathon running. Last fall, I ran the New York City marathon and had planned to try to run Philadelphia three weeks later, figuring I’d already be in training shape. When the morning arrived, I decided I was still way too sore from New York to attempt Philly. I pledge to try again in 2015. After running the Belfast marathon in the spring, a race where my goal was to finish without feeling like I was dying, my goal for Philly was to shave some time off my finish time.

Belfast’s newest Michelin star restaurant, and only the second after Ox sets the bar high with food, drink, and ambiance. Getting a table is a tricky affair, but if you are willing to wait a while, you can get one far out. But the real question is, is it worth the wait and the hype? Through the Looking Glass: Ambiance and Atmosphere Entering through the attached Dean’s Fish restaurant, there’s a definite feeling of having arrived when getting to the upscale EIPIC portion through another door.

Though I loved the Runner’s World Half in Bethlehem, PA last year, I wanted to try out the Hershey Half this year. This weekend seems very popular with races as the weather is typically perfect. It ended up not being as perfect as desired due to an early season cold front, read on to see how this played out. Pre-Race: Packet Pickup and Hershey Park in the Dark Getting to Hershey and staying was super easy with relatively little traffic out from NJ.

For those not familiar with Matthew Inman’s Web Comic, The Oatmeal, if you’re a runner or like funny things, you should acquaint yourself with it. His character of the Blerch, essentially his inner demon that tells him it’s ok not to run, has become a cult figure in running circles. Last year he started a half marathon in his native Seattle, but this year, he expanded to Sacramento and to the East Coast in Morristown, NJ.

Portland Maine has earned a huge reputation for three major things, a foodie paradise, craft beer everywhere, and being exceptionally dog friendly. All of these are well deserved and make for a great trip. What to do with Bowser Casco Bay Mail Boat The Casco Bay Mail boat is a great way to get out and see the water and islands in the bay and is very dog friendly. You need to buy a ticket for Fido and seating is a bit at a premium, so line up early.

After spending the last two years at Delaware’s Firefly Festival, we decided to play closer to home this year and try out the quickly growing Governor’s Ball on Randall’s Island in NYC. Once our friends at the Infatuation announced that they were curating this year’s food “playlist”, it was a no brainer. So which food and bands were the best? Streets of Laredo The funky folk fanfare of Streets of Laredo opened up the day.

Belfast is a city with a troubled past, a glamorous scene, beautiful people and supercars like the DeLorean. It’s basically Bruce Wayne. Since the violence of the “Troubles” has eased, Belfast has come into it’s own quietly with an amazing restaurant and bar scene. Even the New York Times has discovered the resurgence of this city with a new 36 Hours in Belfast feature in January featuring some of the local hotspots and landmarks.

My second marathon, one where you can wake up at 8:45 and make the start, and the best places to eat for preparation and recovery in the beautiful and not-too-distantly troubled city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. When I finished the NYC marathon last November, I knew I could do better. Four hours of standing around before the start in freezing wind, too much tapering, and first marathon nerves meant I finished, but wasn’t very happy with the result.