June 25 is fast approaching. Though National Catfish Day deserves plans of its own, you may want to put those plans on hold until next year, and spend the 25th in Ljubljana, Europe’s best kept secret instead. Ljubljana has the architecture of Spain, wine of Italy, politeness of Germany, and food of Greece while being affordable and still relatively uncrowded from tourists. This little gem of Slovenia deserves your time.

Day Four - All Points West Today we hit all points west of where we’ve been so far, and essentially the remaining breweries (Well technically there are still about 95 others, but the big ones). We’re going to spend the day in the sun, by the surf, and even catch a famous sunset on the cliffs at the obviously named Sunset Cliffs. C’est apropos. Did I use that right? Let’s begin at Stone, the biggest name in San Diego craft brewing and the biggest brewery location as well.

If you have one goal in San Diego it should be to spend the maximum possible amount of time outside in the sun. I mean like no more than 15 minutes a day inside. That includes ordering at places, using restrooms, and sitting down. The weather here is a gift to you and you better not squander it. If you do, the polar vortex will find you and exact revenge. Life is too short to sit inside in San Diego.

Day Two - South Park, North Park, and Kenny? Recharged yet from the sun and suds yesterday? Buckle up Bernie, you’re about to feel the bern today. If you thought yesterday was intense, you may want to stay in bed today. If not, you have earned a place on the continuation of this epic voyage through beer. Today we hit up South Park and North Park, a three mile or so stretch of beer heaven to the east of the huge Balboa Park, where the zoo is located.

San Diego is a town known for surf, sun, Mexican food, and of course beer. The beer options here are so good it’s worth a visit just for the breweries, but the combination of all of the above makes it a perfect destination. There are now over 110 breweries in San Diego and each one is probably worth visiting, but I’ve done the hard work and come up with the best itinerary for a San Diego “beercation” for you.

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.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading (ok listening) of big life altering experience themed books, like hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in Wild, the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods, and Mt. Everest in Into Thin Air, and it got me thinking about what I want to one day check off. Our culture, and particularly generation has been recognized as focusing on experiences rather than destinations or things in life, and I’m no different.

As 2015 draws to a close, I wanted to check back in on the resolutions I publicly made last year. Most were running related, and I made some good progress, while others were more wide ranging and I did well on some there as well. So let’s check in on those I made last year. Increase Speed - My PR in 2014 was a 1:54:00 at the Runner’s World half, and I aimed to best this, possibly even get down into the 1:30:00s.

2015 was a deliciously decadent year for me. We explored a huge number of new and new to us restaurants in NYC, had a gastronomic adventure in Portland, Maine, and had a truly epic meal at the Michelin star tasting menu restaurant EIPIC in Belfast. Here are some of the best things I had all year. New York Babu Ji Babu Ji is hands down my favorite restaurant of 2015. Something about the playful menu, delicious dishes, and self serve beer fridge resonated with me and I cannot wait to go back.

On this most cherished 4th day of October, National Taco day, it seems fitting to reflect back on probably the best taco town I’ve visited, Houston, TX. San Antonio may have better Mexican food, and Austin better BBQ, but Houston nails the perfect intersection of Tex and Mex and has some killer tacos. Tacos a Go-Go Tacos a Go-Go is a Houston local taco joint with two locations in the city.

With Game of Thrones filming many of its most popular scenes in the city and the influx of cruise tourism to southern Croatia, Dubrovnik is seeing increasingly huge crowds. However, there is still a ton to see and experience in the city and with some guidance, you can escape the crowds. Here are the top, can’t miss sights and experiences in and around Dubrovnik. What to See Historical Old Town Dubrovnik has an incredibly interesting history that is perhaps too complex to easily explain to tourists, much like Croatia in general.

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.

So you have only 24 or 36 hours in Hvar, Croatia? No problem, I have the perfect itinerary for making the most of your day. We visited Hvar for my 30th Birthday as part of a Croatia visit and I have to admit, was curious, but not super excited about what I thought would be a very “Girls Gone Wild” or Ibiza crowd. Hvar ended up exceeding my expectations in pretty much every regard.

With our trip to Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro in two weeks, our planning is nearly done. It seemed like a good time to explain the insane process we use to plan our trips. The last few trips we took, including our car delivery in Germany and driving around Lake Como, as well as my wife’s birthday trip to Hong Kong and Singapore, had us scheduling our itineraries down to the hour.

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.