By Helen Anders

GUANAJUATO, Guanajuato — I’m a gardener and a plant nerd. So it’s perhaps no surprise that I came back from my summer vacation with a lot (and I mean a lot) of photographs of plants. Plants in pretty pots, plants on lovely rooftop patios, plants poking out of ancient stone walls.

MONTEREY, Calif. — On a sunny Saturday, Cannery Row’s tourists are packed as tightly as the sardines that were once canned here.

I’m perched on the veranda at Oak Alley Plantation, sipping a cool mint julep and marveling at how those oh-so-proper Southern belles survived in this heat with their gigantic hoop skirts and all that beeswax makeup.

SEATTLE — Time to dust off your umbrella and see if it still opens: Bumbershoot, Seattle’s annual fall music and arts festival, is only a month away.

So, you’re planning that theater getaway to New York, maybe for later this summer or next year. You’ve heard that the Public Theater does Shakespeare in Central Park, and that you can get free tickets by standing in line in the park.

ARLINGTON — The Dallas Cowboys’ shiny new home squats on its flying buttresses like a spaceship whose occupants plan to take over Texas. And that’s pretty much what it is.

American-Statesman Mama Drama blogger Nicole Villalpando, husband Rob and their kids, Ava and Ben, just returned from a 15-day driving adventure out West. Find out if 32 DVDS and a portable player kept the words ‘I’m bored’ out of the kids’ vocabulary and learn more about their trip at statesman.com/mamadrama. Here is an excerpt from one excursion.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Hundreds of thousands of athletes, spectators and media representatives will flood this city and nearby Richmond and Whistler in February for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

WHISTLER, British Columbia — As I ride to the top of Whistler Mountain in a gondola, I see mountain bikers stirring up dust clouds beneath me. To my left, a zip-liner streaks past me between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.