Best Place to Cool Your Heels on a Saturday Night
Carpenter Fountain, Wells Meadow, and Sahm Hill
More precisely a family section of the newly designated Butler District Park, the area features a meadow, a circular climb (or run!) observation hill overlooking Lady Bird Lake and Downtown, and a magically programmed fountain which plays with children (and braver grownups) like a whimsical home sprinkler system designed by Willie Wonka. For the scholarly, it comes with its own homemade history: The fountain is named after writer and Lady Bird confidant Liz Carpenter, the meadow for local Negro League Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Wells, and the observation hill for Texas music legend Doug Sahm. When the kids are blissfully soaked and exhausted, you can tell them all about Liz, Willie, and Doug.
Butler Park
1000 Barton Springs Rd., 512/974-6700
www.cityofaustin.org/parks/butler.htm