San Francisco: 5 best October values

It's prime time for leaf peeping! Get inspired to plot your own fall drive or boat trip after viewing these 19 shots of brilliant red and yellow foliage. Settings include the buttes of Colorado, New York's Central Park, and California's wine country. See the slide show. RECENT READER SLIDE SHOWS Bridges | National Parks | Reflections | Doorways NOW IN SEARCH OF... We're looking for your photos of skylines. Upload them through myBudgetTravel, tag them, and check back in the coming weeks for a slide show of the best submissions.

Head out to Treasure Island for a prime vantage point as 80 teams of paddlers—each moving to the beat of the boat's drummer—face off at San Francisco's International Dragon Boat Festival, September 25-26. The free festival also includes aiko drumming, lion dancing, acrobatic martial arts, and dance performances. International food stands will keep crowds sated with a choice of Thai, Vietnamese, Hawaiian, barbecue, and seafood options. Sunday is family day, with magicians, dragon puppeteers, and Chinese stilt walkers roaming throughout the area. The kids' Dragon Land area will host arts and crafts activities like creating dancing dragons out of chopsticks, bracelet making, and face painting. Snoopy and Nickelodeon's Kai-lan costumed character from TV show Ni Hao, Kai-lan will both be on hand for photo ops. Treasure Island, California Ave. and Ave. D., free parking. Free shuttle buses leave from Chinatown (Kearny and Jackson Sts.) and downtown (San Francisco Marriott, 55 4th St., at Mission St.) every 15 to 20 minutes between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

In another small step forward for space tourism, Boeing announced yesterday that it has joined the race to develop flights to the International Space Station and other destinations in low Earth orbit. Flights on its CST-100 spacecraft may launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., as soon as 2015, with four crew members and three tourists at a time. "We're ready now to start talking to prospective customers," Eric C. Anderson of Virginia-based Space Adventures, which would market the seats for Boeing, told the NYT. No ticket price has been set yet, but it's safe to assume it will be, yes, astronomical. Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté—one of seven tourists to visit the space station—paid $40 million last year for an eight-day stay at the station and a flight in a Russian Soyuz capsule. Richard Branson began developing his own commercial space business, Virgin Galactic, a few years ago, and has already sold 700 seats priced at $200,000 each, according to PCMag.com, which reports that a Virgin Galactic space ship flew for the first time with a crew on board in July. How much would you pay for a ticket to space? And what would you pack in your carry-on? PREVIOUSLY The Next Big Thing: Space Travel and More Coming Attractions

As an amateur (but enthusiastic) art buff, I've been following the development of the brand-new Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, N.C. The museum opened in January and just recently mounted its first major themed exhibition: School of Paris: European Abstraction Post World War II. The museum's collection is made up of a 1,400-piece donation from the Bechtlers, a Swiss family of patrons—including local resident Andreas Bechtler—who developed personal relationships with some of their favorite artists, like Alberto Giacometti. Spanning 70 years of the family's collecting efforts, the works were donated to Charlotte so the city could open a museum. Because the collection was originally a private one, much of the art hasn't ever been on public view in the U.S., including works by Warhol, Picasso, and Degas—a neat fact that has gained the museum accolades. The new School of Paris exhibit has more than 60 pieces by eight artists, including paintings, drawings, and prints, all created in the 1940s to 60s. The School of Paris is a term used to describe the group of modern artists who lived and worked in Paris in the mid-20th century, though the group at the Bechtler includes names that are lesser-known in the U.S.: Alberto Magnelli, Gustave Singier, and Nicolas de Stael. If all those foreign names overwhelm, be sure to get the free audio guide when you begin your viewing. As part of the new exhibition, which runs through Jan. 3, 2011, the museum is hosting a few special events, like French films on every Monday in November and concerts, including an Edith Piaf tribute in October. Closing time is usually 5 p.m., but on the first and third Fridays of the month, the museum stays open until 9. Admission is $8 per person, and that includes the School of Paris exhibit. Also new to Charlotte is the Nascar Hall of Fame, which opened in May. Because, really, why not pair an afternoon of high art with a tour of American engine-gunning ingenuity?