Downtown Container Park

Downtown Container Park stacks shipping containers and modular cubes into an open-air plaza of boutiques, food spots and bars at Fremont and 7th - fronted by The Mantis, the roughly 40-foot steel praying mantis that came here from Burning Man and breathes six-story propane flames after dark. Entry is free, and so are the crowd-pleasers: the three-story Treehouse with its slides, the playground, and the lawn stage's free concerts and movie nights. A drum circle "wakes" the Mantis at sundown, and from then on it fires at random intervals, weather permitting. It does not fire on the hour, whatever older guides claim, and it doesn't run at all on Mondays or Tuesdays.

Plan around its rhythms. Shops open at 11:30 AM most days (11 AM weekends) and close by 8–9 PM, while the bars run to 1 AM on weekends, and kids are welcome only until 9 PM, after which the park is 21-plus. Families should come in daylight and stay for the first flames. There's no parking of its own; the closest options are the lot at 118 S 7th and the Neonopolis garage, with rates posted at the entrance and higher on event nights. The footprint is compact - 45 to 90 minutes covers it - and it's a few blocks east of the Fremont Street Experience, which makes it the natural finish to a Downtown afternoon.