Sheldon Lake SP & Environmental Learning Center, 4/27/20

76. This is a day-use only park, and we are in the middle of the Covid-19 mess.  One of our favorite Houston breweries was having a one-day only curbside pickup, so we thought starting our Houston day here was a great idea!  And it was!  First of all, there was NO traffic - we made it all the way across Houston (coming from the west, Austin) in about 30 minutes, everybody moving at normal highway speeds. 
We had made a reservation to go to the park, and there were people there, but nobody was checking our reservation status.  We carried our masks in our pockets and donned them whenever we saw people approaching and most others did the same. 
The park is beautiful: it's an old fish hatchery, so has rectangular ponds, each one numbered.  The ponds are getting overgrown, but also attract a lot of birds and supposedly there are alligators there too, although we didn't see any.  There is a walking trail around the ponds, to the tower and a boardwalk through the marshy area.  The environmental learning center has a ramp into the water for kids to wade in and collect water samples; there is an elevated tub where they can examine their samples and when they're done, the ranger can pull the plug and the samples go down the drain and back into the pond.  Very cool. 

The observation tower.  There is an elevator but it didn't look like it was functional the day we went.

View from the tower. 

One of the hatchery ponds. 

The learning center. 

Sheldon Lake is part of the greater Houston area, with all the things that entails.  One could probably spend a month in Houston and never see the same things or eat at the same restaurant twice.  Of course, we love the 1910 courthouse and Brash Brewing is the brewery we visited after Sheldon Lake.