It wasn't long ago that what is now the center of downtown outdoor life was industrial land and concrete parking lots. Around $180 million in acquisition and improvement costs later, Discovery Green offers an active park in which to enjoy programs year round.

There's something for everyone. Whether you are trying to get fit, party, enjoy a leisurely afternoon or unleash the artsy in you, we've put together five happenings that deserve a spot on your iCal.

Libations, Cuisine and Movies Under the Stars: Date Night Movies

Not to be confused with the regular movie screenings on the hill, these more intimate gatherings are on the Grace Event Lawn. Bring a picnic blanket and sprawl out on the grass for a flick — Tootsie on Saturday or Dirty Dancing onJune 23.

Grab a snack basket at The Grove ($25), which includes mini pretzel bites with a trio of mustards, parmesan truffled popcorn and homemade chocolate, or choose a three-course prix fixe menu ($45) of ricotta gnudi, salad, choice of Ahi tuna, rotisserie chicken, filet mignon or Texas redfish, and dessert. And for early arrivals, a dance instructor will offer lessons.

It's OK to get romantic, but if you need a room remember the Hilton-Americas is just across the street.

Saturday and June 23. Screening starts at 8 p.m. Free to attend, food and drinks additional.

DockDogs

You know the cuddly fluffy Bichon Frise that cuddles up to you and licks your nose? It turns out some of his cousins are quite the four-legged athletes.

Moreover, they love the water just as much as Houston loves the DockDogs challenge. It's a three-day event of Olympic proportions in which iron pooches swim, leap and retrieve to earn the title of top dog. Discovery Green changes things up a bit this year with the addition of a "Haute Dog" costume contest and a tricks competition.

June 22 though 24. Admission is free for spectators; $25-$40 for participants.

Rainbow on the Green presented by LandRover Houston

Last year, the whole GLBT community went haywire for guest celebrity Anthony Rapp, star of the original cast of Rent. The second annual Rainbow on the Green gets even gayer with disco legend Thelma Houston, whose timeless hit "Don't Leave Me This Way" is as naughty now as it was when it was released in 1975.

Tye Blue hosts, and the event also includes a troupe of local GLBT singers, dancers and musicians.

Oh baby, come satisfy the need in me — you know the lyrics, don't you? We're sure you've got the music in you. Houston needs some Thelma.

June 22, 8-10 p.m. Admission is free.

Discovery Green Flea

For the summer, the monthly antique shopping party moves to the evening to avoid the sweltering heat. Set in the shady meadow behind The Grove, a myriad of vendors morph the grounds into a haven for bargain shoppers and eco-conscious consumers who seek recycled, up-cycled, re-purpose, vintage and playful artifacts, collectibles and furniture.

Look out for a special treasure hunt item hidden somewhere in between the tents. Find it and it's yours to keep.

June 16 and July 21, 6-10 p.m. Admission is free.

Julydoscope

Other than it happens in July, this evening fete should be called art-kaleidoscope as it is a commingling of local art organizations looking to show Houston a good time. This combination of film, music, dance and entertainment on the Anheuser-Busch Stage will feature the talents of Q-Fest, Theatre Under the Stars, Avantica Academy of Odissi Dance and other arts powerhouse companies.

At 8:30 p.m. Houston Cinema Arts Society will screen The Wiz starring Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Nipsey Russell.

July 28, 6-10 p.m. Admission is free.

I've seen wine pairings, beer pairings and even chocolate pairings. Now Triniti has announced perhaps the first-ever dinner with a musical pairing.

Triniti is partnering with Mercury (formerly Mercury Baroque) to choreograph an eight-course dinner and wine tasting menu with music from the 15-person orchestra ensemble, under the direction of maestro Antoine Plante.

The combination of inspirations should be interesting, especially as Triniti, under the helm of chef/owner Ryan Hildebrand, pays much attention to the multi-sensory experience of food, particularly pace and presentation. Marrying that with selections from Handel and Vivaldi (among others) to convey mood should be thought provoking.

"It's interesting and also challenging," Plante said in a statement. "The task is to select musical pieces that will address the nuances of each dish, whether it calls for contrasting themes to address different flavors, something with weight and drama for a heartier dish, or a slow lyrical melody for something sweet.

"If the course is crisp and clean, the music will reflect that too."

The dinner will take place on June 10, and 40 percent of the $220 tickets will benefit Mercury. Hildebrand says that he hopes to create similar collaborations to debut each new seasonal menu with this being summer.

It should certainly take the concept of "a little dinner music" to the next level.

I’m a big fan of lawn games. A picnic isn’t a picnic without a lively round of throwing washers or Frisbee, as far as I’m concerned. What I love about lawn games is how easy they are organize, and how players are able to find that happy medium between competition and rabid intensity.

I’ve never seen a person angrily hurl a Frisbee into the woods after a bad toss, and I’ve gotten to know many acquaintances better after humbly congratulating them as they cover my hard earned five-point washer toss. In my younger days, my friends and I would spend entire weekends at Crystal Beach with people that we had met within hours of setting up an impromptu sand volleyball net.

If you serve it, they will most definitely come.

Lawn games don’t just have to be restricted to old classics, though. We live in Houston, after all.

In this city, things are often a bit more . . . eclectic. This is a city where you can get Vietnamese, Greek and Salvadoran food within a block of each other and maybe see an Art Car or three along the way, and I sense that Houstonians might want to approach the traditional lawn game concept with the same adventurous spirit.

This is the city that introduced Major League Baseball to domed stadiums and Astroturf, after all.

With Memorial Day weekend here, I want to sing the praises of a lawn game that was recently introduced to me. Kubb (pronounced “koob”) is a game that satisfies every requirement of what good lawn competition is all about.

The game can be played at the drop of a hat, with as few as two people or as many as 12. It presents an opportunity for players to toss objects at other objects — a strangely common element in these sorts of games — and you can play it virtually anywhere.

The game was imported from Sweden, and as you might suspect, is played with square wooden pieces and practical, common-sense rules. The object of the game is simply to use six wooden batons (officially called “kastpinnars”) to knock down each of your opponent’s line of square blocks (called “kubbs”) before knocking down the bigger middle block, or “king.”

Easy enough, right? Not so fast, pardner.

If one of your kubbs is knocked over, you then must shamefully throw it past the king in the middle (throwing overhand or side-arm is a no-no). Once this happens, your opponent proceeds to set it up for you to knock over again before you start aiming for their kubbs. The key strategy here is to try and keep the thrown piece as close to your side as you can, while keeping it away from the king.

After each kubb is knocked over on one side, a player can then start aiming for the king. Knock over the king after all of your opponent’s kubbs are down, and you win. Knock the king over before the last kubb falls, and you have just lost the game.

What I like most about this game is how clean and simple the pitch (normally five meters by eight meters) looks when a game is underway. There is something immediately appealing about wooden blocks scattered across a field of green grass, accompanied by the dull thud of the kastpinnars as they knock over a few kubbs. There’s also the added bonus that you and your kubbmates might be the first ones on the block playing this strange, wonderful lawn game.

You are sure to arouse the curiosity of bystanders, which may very well lead to some wonderful opportunities for Kubb evangelization.

Because the game uses such rudimentary pieces, you don’t even need to scour the Internet to order your own set (though sets can be found online if you're looking.) All you really need is a 72-inch 4x4, a 72-inch wooden pole, a table saw and a tape measure. Cut the 4x4 into 10 six-inch kubbs and one 12-inch king, cut the wooden pole into six 12-inch batons, pack the game up in your favorite reusable bag, head to Menil Park, and you’re set!

I’ll see y’all on the Kubb pitch, Houston.

Step right up, folks: The Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier has opened its gates, just in time for Memorial Day weekend.

The amusement park and destination, a Landry's Inc. venture, salutes the historic pier that stood in the same location along the Galveston Seawall from 1948 until 1961. But the new amenities are decidedly modern on the 1,130-foot stretch, jam-packed with shops, food and games.

And, of course, roller coasters.

The Cyclone whooshes. The Texas Tea induces dizziness. The Pirate's Plunge splashes passers-by. Only a few of the 16 rides (13 are currently operational) are along the pier, designed to whirl and twirl and entertain.

"There's something for everybody," Mark Kane, regional director of the Landry's theme park and interim general manager of the Pleasure Pier, tells CultureMap.

Though the attractions easily distract, it's impossible for one to forget that the platform is suspended over the Gulf of Mexico. At each step, visitors get vistas of the gulf and the seawall. Almost all of the rides swing out over the water, where surfers straddle their boards below, alongside the cement pilings. The ocean breeze cools — at least for now.

A Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and a Gump on the Run (both accessible from outside of the entrance gates) ensure that visitors won't leave hungry. You'll also find all of the requisite carnival foods — chips, burgers, cotton candy, pretzels, pizza and more. The Brew Station offers beer, margaritas and wine for adults, and Lolli & Pop's Candy Shoppe has sweet treats for the young and young at heart.

All of the amenities combine to create a family-friendly atmosphere, fun for kids and grown ups, tourists and locals alike.

Find more information about visiting the Pleasure Pier here. Watch CultureMap's exclusive video tour (above), produced by Joel Luks.

OIMBY, short for Outstanding in my Backyard, came together in 2010 as a reaction to the skyrocketing prices for the national farm-focused dinner series Outstanding in the Field. It brought together foodies, some top-tier local chefs and donated local ingredients for an affordable yet memorable experience.

Now OIMBY has returned to Houston with a series of summer dinners at the home of Monica Pope.

"[David Leftwich and Tara Kelly] did it as a cheeky thing: Not expensive, charitable," Pope says. "But in the last five years, of all the things I've done, it's one of the things people are still talking about. It resonated with people."

Pope hopes the revived OIMBY experience (organized with Leftwich and Kelly) will help her express her food philosophies, focusing on changing the way people live, not just how they eat. Over the past two years she's transformed the backyard of the house she's owned for 20 years, bringing in a bee hive, growing a butterfly garden and even adding chickens into the mix.

"It feels very exposing, like 'Yikes, I'm going to have people entering my home, in my backyard,' but it's expressing the importance of all of us doing this. It's been a long journey and it ended with a microcosmic world in my backyard, " Pope says. "I want it to be meaningful and beautiful in a way that will resonate, not just cooking hot dogs in the backyard.

"I want people to come and go 'Wow' . . . to see the spectacle. And it's going to be fun, that's the most important part."

Pope will hold the OIMBY dinners on eight Sunday evenings in June and July. Tickets are $40 each, available here or by calling 713-524-6922. Pope says she is still getting the menus and guest chefs in place, but says she's working with vendors to create themes like a pork-driven supper, plus events that will focus on seafood and goat.

Yet OIMBY is only a one of Pope's summer projects. Pope is also starting a farmers market program called "Shop Cook Eat Love." Starting on June 16, she'll lead a group through the Eastside Farmers Market on Saturdays and the Rice University Farmers Market on Tuesdays, teaching customers how to "get the most out of [their] trip to the farmers market," picking out produce and heading to t'afia afterwards to learn how to prepare them, eat their bounty and go home with new knowledge and a new recipe. Tickets are $45 and include the cost of food.

Oh, and when she's not working on either of these projects or at her restaurant, Pope is also writing a memoir.

"I just wanted to push it this summer, personally and professionally," she says.

Are you on board for OIMBY?