With ceiling fans whirring overhead on the Canopy patio, the sophisticated group of young professionals talked heat, drought, travel and more as they worked to ignore the triple-digit temps. Actually, it wasn't so rough on the Montrose-eatery's patio once an early-evening breeze kicked up — and all could've moved indoors if they had chosen to.

Welcome to Houston in August and to the second monthly CultureMap Mixers on the Map, this one engaging members of Hermann Park Conservancy's Urban Green. That group is comprised of park fans aged 21 to 40.

The 200 or so parkies perched themselves on stools in the restaurant's open bar, spread across the front dining area and spilled over onto the patio where the outdoor bar kept the cooling libations flowing. Urban Green leadership chair Brittany Sakowitz was one who opted for the patio, her beau Kevin Kushner amused by Brittany's self-diagnosed "heat depression." Though with her million-dollar smile and mannequin good looks, she didn't appear overly wrought.

If anyone had truly earned the summer stress, it was Doreen Stoller, Hermann Park Conservancy executive director. "We have 8,000 trees in the park," she said "and only 30 or 40 young ones have been lost to the drought." Lucky for the park, there are community service volunteers who traverse the grounds all day every day in a golf cart, watering young newly-planted trees from a water tank attached to the cart.

For the woman who prays for sunny skies every spring during the conservancy's al fresco Evening in the Park and Hats in the Park luncheon, Doreen admits that the about face of summoning rain has felt a little weird.

Neither the heat nor the drought seem to be affecting the neighboring Houston Zoo's prospects, according to Nick Espinosa, senior director of development. The first Tuesday in August (admission is free beginning at 2 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month), more than 7,000 visitors poured through the zoo gates. And, he reported, the rhinos are loving lolling in their mud baths during the heat wave.

We ran into John Andell as he darted indoors from the patio. "Red wine outside in this heat is not a good thing," he said as he shared plans for more travel to Maine. Yes, he's already been up in the cool Atlantic state once this summer. Pierce Bush was in the mix being cleverly coy regarding his venture into the entrepreneurial arena. Christine Thorp, Heather Bourque and Emily Cotton talked up next spring's Starlight Gala Fashion Show at Hudson Lounge, planning ahead a must for this busy trio.

Others joining in included Anand Varadarajan, Katrina Cron, Jason Dominguez, Meghan Miller, Christine Thorp, Meghan Moore, Lauren Tunstall, George Chukwu, Carlos R. Fernandez, Nikki Hanley and Caitlin Dooley.