Kid Fit exercise area in Terry Hershey Park

Kid Fit area at Terry Hershey Park

Kid-friendly neighborhood restaurants with playground areas and equipment

Some restaurants in and around the Energy Corridor area have the interests of grown-ups with kids in mind too -- and a big enough lot size for playgrounds or play areas. Among the family and kid-friendly eateries: Joe's Crab Shack on Highway 6; Las Ventanas off Texas 6 on Grisby Road, and Lupe Tortilla's Mexican Restaurant, which is located on the same street. 

Playground equipment on front patio of Joe's Crab Shack on SH 6

Playground in the backyard of Las Ventanas Mexican Restaurant

Lupe Tortilla Logo on top of storefront

This photo shows the patio on the South side and parking lot only;
the playground area is on the other side

Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurant and Cantina

Lupe Tortilla 318 Stafford St Houston, TX 77079

Las Ventanas Restaurant & Cantina (photos)

Las Ventanas Signage in the dark
with Energy Corridor Mexican restaurant behind

Las Ventanas Restaurant & Cantina 14555 Grisby Road Houston, TX 77079

Las Ventanas logo on sign in Mexican Restaurant's parking lot on Grisby Rd.

Entrada Las Ventanas Restaurante Mexicano y Cantina 

Panoramic view of Mexican Restaurant and Las Ventanas logo on sign

November 23 visually (photo of sundial)

Cropped portion of Analemmatic sundial at Houston, Texas Park
Read explanation for Analemmatic sundials at Wikpaedia

This special kind of clock is installed on a small hill near the Pavilion and Playground at Terry Hershey Park
North of Memorial Drive
Your shadow is the clock hand, but it only works when the sun is out
You have to stand  in the square for the current month to correct for the angle of the sun's trajectory
over the course of the year. Your shadow will point to the number that represents the hour on the dial

Suburban Bird Watching - Buffalo Bayou at Highway 6 Bridge - Barker Dam spillway

Great birding location in West Houston:  Buffalo Bayou downstream of the flood-control gate at Barker Reservoir near Highway 6 

Great Egret

The Texas coast offers great opportunities for birding, but casual birdwatchers and hobby ornithologists need not drive all the way down to Galveston Bay, not to mention Port Aransas or Goose Creek Park / National Wildlife center to indulge their passion for feathered wildlife.

There is a great -- not to mention very accessible -- spot to watch birds in West Houston where Buffalo Bayou exits from the Barker Reservoir into the spillway, a channelized stretch of waterway that has no underbrush or trees to obstruct the view. Large birds such as Great Egrets, Blue Herons, and Night Herons like to linger at the point of confluence of the bayou with the canals that runs Northward and Southward alongside the dam on the city-facing side. The difference in elevation causes the water streams from the drainage canals to cascade, which apparently facilitates the bird's chances to spot and catch fish there. They do that using their bills as spears.

Tricolored or Great Blue Heron (not sure)
The white bird behind the Heron is probably a snowy egret

Several such birds – great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, night herons, and such -- can regularly be seen there and even occasionally get into a scuffle with each other over the best spot to wait for the water current to deliver the next meal.

Great Blue Heron (my best guess)

An additional plus of this suburban bird-watching spot is that a reasonably-sized parking lot is conveniently located closeby. It has recently be resurfaced and also provides access to the Terry Hershey Hike and BikeTrail, the Barker Dam Road (gravel road), and the bike-only trail which runs North parallel to the dam and Highway 6 and then curves to the West and follows the dam to Sergeant Hatch Park and Barker-Clodine Road; and the other leg of the George Bush Bike Trail that runs South to the parking lot at Briar Forest and to Noble Road Trail inside the reservoir (though the latter is not paved and more suitable for dirt bikes and hikers).

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
(characteristic black legs and yellow feet; smaller and stockier than the Great Egret)

If interested in bird-watching in the Houston/Harris County area, note that  native, migratory, and exotic birds can also be seen at the aviary at Bear Creek Park, including owls. The obvious benefit of the aviary, like that of a zoo, is that the birds are always there and that a considerable variety of them are found in close proximity. Lots of spare time and patience to endure stretches of downtime with no bird sightings is not required for a rewarding educational experience, or just mere enjoyment of this colorful aspect of nature.  

Landscape with flood canal on city-facing side of Barker Dam
View from the ped-bike bridge - Oct 2012

Cullen Park Hike & Bike Trail in September (photo tour)

Birdhouse on the Prairie

Tree-lined section of Cullen Hike & Bike Trail (paved throughout)

Edge of meadow along Cullen Park Hike & Bike Trail near the West Houston Airport

Yellowish-green berries hanging from small tree seen against the blue sky over the prairie land
South of the runway at West Houston Airport

Looking up - Twigs with double-rows of leaves make for nice profile against the sky

Red Trumpet flowers with seed pods on the same twig

Bushy-hairy grass stalks on the edge of the meadow alongside the hike and bike trail

Majestic Oaks (my best guess) at the historic grave site where members of German pioneer families
who settled in the Addicks-Bear Creek  in the 1800's area are buried

A few of the gravestones with German inscriptions at the Koch-Schmidt Cemetery

Picnic tables and gazebo at one of the park and playground areas with facilities
in Cullen Park / Addicks Reservoir (near the burial grounds of the German Pioneers that settled the area )

Kids playground along Cullen Hike & Bike Trail with a few rays of sun in the late afternoon
(accessible via the trail or by car, with parking lot and amenities for visitors nearby)

Orange butterfly with white specks under the wings. It had landed on a stalk in the grass
and was flipping its wings as if to show off to colorful patterns on both the top and bottom sides.

Sunlit vegetation on a late afternoon at bend in the Cullen Trail
near the East End at Highway 6 / Patterson Road

Heading West on Cullen Trail in the late afternoon:
Backlit foliage and tree branches 

Cullen Hike & Bike Trail - Trailhead on the East End (at Highway 6 at Patterson Road) with Signs

Cullen Park (Addicks Reservoir) in pics

Like George Bush Park, Cullen Park is a huge suburban park, more properly thought of as a cluster of parks in a wilderness area, linked by a paved hike & bike trail that runs East all the way to Highway 6, and provides a link to Bear Creek Pioneers Park via Patterson Road. Like Bear Creek Park, Cullen Park also features numerous pavilions and picnic areas with tables and benches, and sports facilities at the "Phase" located near Saums Road.

Not the mention a velodrome, which -- by contrast -- is a rather unique facility in the area. 

Playground area with sprinkling water fun for kids at Cullen Park on Saums Road.
Park pavilion with red roof in the background

City of Houston Park Regs posted at Cullen Park
The Cite of Houston leases the park from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and maintains it

Picnic table with benches in tree-shaded area of Cullen Park

Bridge over South Mayde Creek at Cullen Park with picnic table-bench set in front

Pavilion at Cullen Park - Saums Road near Barker-Cypress

Sports facility / field at Cullen Park

Sunset at Cullen Park in West Houston

The Cullen Hike and Bike Trail passes South of the West Houston Airport, where another large developed park area with amenities and playground for kids is located. There is also an expansive meadow (mowed) bordered by green wilderness (grasses, brush, small trees) with an abundance of butterflies and other insects during the warm part of the year. 

Some segments of the trail are lined by trees and shaded by the canopy. Others cross open green spaces. A trail also runs alongside South Mayde Creek, one of the waterways that feeds into the Addicks Reservoir and ultimately drains into Buffalo Bayou (and on into the ship channel further downstream).