Pittsboro is in the center of Chatham County, the heart of North Carolina, equidistant from the mountains and the beaches.   It is centrally located with respect to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Southern Pines, Seagrove, and Asheboro. Within an hour's drive there are sixty-six things to do!

1. Attend the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival April and October.  It's fifteen minutes from the B&B.  Four days of music and dance, 4 stages, 40 bands. 

2. Browse the downtown Pittsboro shops.  First Sunday of each month: Pittsboro merchants are sponsoring art, music, crafts, sidewalk sales. 

3. Stop in Pittsboro's pubs, City Tap or Carolina Brewery, for a beer and a sandwich.

4. There's excellent local music to be heard at the Bynum Front Porch Music Series, Friday nights from May through November. Outdoor -- free-- bring a chair.

5. Tour Carolina Tiger Rescue, at 10 am and 1 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.  The 55-acre compound is home to approximately 140 animals representing 11 species of threatened and endangered carnivores from around the world. These include tigers, spotted leopards, snow leopards, jaguars, ocelots, servals, caracals, binturongs, and more.

6. North Carolina is famous for its barbeque.  Allen and Sons Barbeque is just a few miles north on 15-501.

7. A beautiful dance studio in the Chatham Mills Building, Joy of Movement, offers drop-in classes in yoga, nia, martial arts, and dance.  Their schedule is updated frequently.

8. On the first two weekends of December, the studios of more than 50 Chatham County artists will be open to the public.  Visit the Chatham Artists Guild tour website for details.

9. Visit a couple of outstanding art museums: the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the Ackland in Chapel Hill. 

10. A special place for flowers: Orchid Gallery.  Just a few miles from the B&B.

11. Kids of all ages enjoy Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, showcasing global cultures, communities, and the inter-connectedness of all peoples.   IMAX Theater!

12. See the all-new exhibits at the Natural Sciences Museum in Raleigh.

13. Attend a performance at the charming little Temple Theatre in nearby Sanford.

14. Or see what's playing at Raleigh's Little Theatre, the Carolina Theatre of Durham, the Burning Coal Theatre Company, Theatre in the Park in Raleigh, Playmakers Repertory Company, or NC State's University Theatre productions.

15. There's always something going on at Duke's Institute of the Arts.

16. Taste wine!  Five wineries within 20 minutes.  Heart of NC Wine Trail.

17. Also, in Siler City: the Arts Incubator, renovated historic buildings providing space for artists studios, a gallery, and shop. 

18. Garden-lovers love the Coker Arboretum in Chapel Hill and the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham.

19. Just a block away is the best ice cream at S&T's Soda Shoppe.  You'll step back into the 1050's, complete with jukebox.  Take someone to share a banana split! 

20. Everyone must see the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill.

21. Keep going west on 64 and you'll reach the NC Zoo in Asheboro, where exotic animals live in natural, open settings.

22. Pack a picnic and go swimming at Jordan Lake. A 3,900-acre reservoir in Wake and Chatham County, Jordan Lake offers boating, camping, fishing, swimming and a full-service commercial marina. It is the largest summertime home of the bald eagle in the Eastern United States.

23. Wandering through the NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill makes an ordinary day both special and educational. By the way, the Botanical Gardens houses the largest collection of rosemary specimens in the world!

24. Shop!  Nearby Burlington is outlet heaven, while The Streets at Southpoint is the biggest, newest mall in North Carolina.

25. Take a sandwich and visit  Eno River State Park in Durham. There's a huge festival there every July.

26. Pittsboro has a food co-op - Chatham Marketplace.  It's a small, friendly, fun store in the old label mill, about 1/4 mile from the B&B.  Nice hot & cold salad bar, great breads, wine, produce.

27. In Graham, about 20 minutes away, there's a movie theater that costs $2.

28. Interested in historical plantations?  The House in the Horseshoe, in Sanford, features a Revolutionary War re-enactment.  The house (ca. 1770) was owned by Philip Alston, whose band of Whigs was attacked in 1781 by Tories. Later, four-term governor Benjamin Williams lived in the house, which now contains antiques of the colonial and Revolutionary War eras.

29. Go to Raven Rock State Park, and hike down the trail to the Cape Fear river.

30. You can easily while away an entire afternoon at McIntyre's bookstore in Fearrington Village.  Also at Fearrington- get your picture taken with those funny cows, black and white Belted Galloways.  Then pick up a sandwich at the Belted Goat deli, and eat under the wisteria-covered pergola. 

31. In mid to late April every year, you can tour farms in Chatham and Orange Counties.  For $25 per car, you can visit as many as you like. The Farm Tour is a great way to spend a day or a weekend roaming our beautiful rural farmlands, visit farmers who grow organic lettuce, heirloom apples, hydroponic tomatoes, strawberries, flowers, and acres of vegetables or berries. Some farms feature goats or cows and produce cheeses, milk and ice cream.

32. A few miles north of Pittsboro, turn right and drive a mile or so to Bynum, an old mill town where folks are living in and fixing up the mill workers' houses.  Turn left on Thompson Rec Road, go around the corner, and you'll see the home of Clyde Jones, a folk artist, famous for his "critters" made out of stuff that he finds.

33. Head south-west to Seagrove and visit the NC Pottery Museum, housing a sampling of Seagrove-area potters' work. Then visit your favorites in their nearby studios.  Lyn Morrow has a great selection of her own and other potters' work, just 5 miles up 15-501.

34. See what's happening at the Arts Center in Carrboro.  In addition to their gallery, writing, pottery, photography, and dance classes are offered.

35. For club music, visit Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill. 

36. One minute away: the beautiful new Chatham County public library.

37. Nearby Snow Camp was founded by Quakers in 1749.  Each summer the Historical Drama Society performs theater portraying the Quakers' struggles in the Revolutionary War and their efforts to transport fugitive slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad.

38. Buy fresh organic produce at the local Farmer's Markets - in Pittsboro (Thursdays), Carrboro (Saturdays), and Fearrington (Tuesdays).

39. Tour Piedmont Biofuels, where used vegetable oil is turned into clean diesel fuel.  Fewer emissions to pollute the air, and no dependence on foreign oil.

40. The Carolina Ballet has frequent performances.  In Raleigh.

41. Raleigh's Sports and Entertainment Arena hosts ice hockey with the Hurricanes - they're exciting and fun!

42. Ride an antique carousel. There's one in Burlington City Park, and another in Pullen Park in Raleigh.

43. Sanford, south of Pittsboro on 15-501, has a walking tour of its historic district.

44. If you're interested in railroads, visit. Sanford's Railroad House Museum. Less than 30 minutes from Pittsboro, south on 15-501.

45. Full Frame, a four-day documentary film festival, takes place in Durham in April.

46. Visit the 1881 Chatham County Courthouse and Historical Museum, a block away. A 1907 monument to the Confederate soldier stands guard. The museum is inside the courthouse. The Courthouse is being repaired after a disastrous fire in March 2010.

47. Only ten minutes away, a new wine shop, UnWined, carries delicious NC wines and cheeses, open weekends.
    
    
48. Take a short ride to the Devil's Stompin' Ground Road on 902. This byway takes its colorful name from a local legend attached to a clearing, in which is a circular path said to have been worn down by the devil's pacing as he plotted new forms of mischief.
    
    
49. St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation/ Hayti Heritage Center in Durham features performers in the African-American cultural tradition. Blues, hip-hop, writers and poets, films - a spirited, lively place to visit.

50. Artsplosure, in downtown Raleigh in late May, is a free outdoor performing and visual arts event, featuring Juried arts exhibitions and marketplace, the Young Collector’s Mart, Kidsplosure, unique interactive sculptural installations, and performances by national and regional roots, jazz, and contemporary musicians.

51. The North Carolina Symphony holds a Summerfest Outdoor Concert Series in Cary. Each Saturday night families bring picnics and lawn chairs and listen to live orchestral music under the towering pines of Regency Park in Cary.

52. Six weeks each summer in Durham, you can attend the American Dance Festival and see the world's greatest dance troupes.

53. Each year around the Fourth of July, a giant festival is held on the banks of the Eno River, to raise funds to take care of the river. Lots of performing artists, crafts, food, displays.

54. Another fascinating place- the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

55. A great place for children is the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. Has an outdoor nature park, train ride, farmyard animals, Carolina wildlife, Aerospace, Small Science, playground, discovery rooms, traveling exhibits, and the new Magic Wings Butterfly House, a tropical garden with butterflies from Asia, Africa, Central and South America.

56. A fine museum experience may be had at Duke University Museum of Art in Durham.

57. Go see to world-class outdoor music acts at the Alltel pavilion in Raleigh. 

58. Golf!  An excellent nearby course is Quarry Hills in Graham, about 15 miles away.  We've heard good things about the Tobacco Road Club in Sanford.  We're only an hour from the marvelous courses at Pinehurst.

59. Taste wine!  In Morrisville - 30 minutes away, near RDU airport, visit Chatham Hills Winery.

60. The Southern Supreme showroom in Bear Creek is a great place to visit. Famous for their fruitcake, they also sell gift baskets of nuts, jellies, chocolates, cookies.

61. Something the whole family will enjoy - panning for gold!  At The Rocks, in nearby Moncure, you can mine for gemstones.

62. The Chapel Hill Museum is devoted to displaying the history, culture, art, and craft of Chapel Hill.  Worth a visit.

63. Canoe on University Lake or Cane Creek Reservoir.  Both are open weekends, and offer canoe rentals.  They are west of Chapel Hill, about 30 minutes drive from the B&B.

64. Central Pittsboro is registered on the National Register of Historic Places, with over 100 contributing properties ranging in date from 1780s to 1949.   Historical architecture buffs will enjoy seeing these buildings, which reflect the town's evolution from a back-country village to a bustling Piedmont town.

65. Enjoy a brisk walk on the pleasant one-mile exercise trail around the community college, about a half-mile away.

66. Stay put in our B&B.  Have a late breakfast. Rock on the porch, listen to the birds, read a book.  Just let yourself be lazy - you deserve it!