Good coffee

For some of us, the best coffee we drink is the stuff we do not brew ourselves. And the more likely we are to look for third place venues, the more of these there will be, the more competition and the better the coffee.

So it's no surprise that readers of Travel and Leisure rated Seattle, Portland and San Francisco as America's top three best-coffee cities. (H/T Planetizen)

There was a time, not long ago, when visitors from abroad would scoff at American coffee. But when the timing is ripe, there will always be a Julia Child or a Howard Schultz or a Robert Mondavi who are the first to figure it out -- and act on their intuition.