If you think Fayetteville is boring, here are 100 reasons why you're wrong

If you are one of those folks who claim there is “nothing to do” in Fayetteville, tell it to someone else besides Melody Foote.

“That’s so wrong,” she says.

Better yet, check out her book, “100 Things to Do in Fayetteville, North Carolina Before You Die,” which Reedy Press published this month. Foote worked for 20 years at the Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, now called Distinctly Fayetteville. She will sign copies of her book from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at City Center Gallery & Books at 112 Hay St. downtown.

Foote says Fayetteville offers plenty of activities, especially for families.

“I think I was drawn more to like outdoorsy stuff,” she said about pulling the content together, and “kind of some of the more modern (features) ... like the breweries.”

She said the city really gets rolling through the holiday season with events ranging from a downtown zombie walk to a performance of “Messiah” by Cumberland Choral Arts and the Fayetteville Symphony, both of which are in the book.

“There’s something going on it seems like almost every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s,” she said.

How many have I done?

I thumbed through Foote’s book and of course, looked for how many of the “things to do” I had done. I counted 72, many if not most of which I was with my family.

Don’t be envious: I’m a Fayetteville native, so I am real familiar with most of the spots on Foote’s list.

It’s a good list. Someone else would swap in different places for some of her locations and experiences, I am sure. In the end, no two books anyone would write would have the same 100 spots.

But I feel someone can read the book and get a good feel for Fayetteville, and that’s what you want.

“The thing that really stood out to me was how passionate people at these sites are about their sites,” Foote said. “I remember when we went out to Clark Park, the nature center.

"I had never been there, believe it or not, until I started this book.”

She said the park ranger was “so passionate telling us about everything, and all the ecology and the waterfall … That really stuck with me.”

Soft adventure

Foote’s book is part of a national series, “100 Things to Do Before You Die,” which has more than 100 titles, according to the publisher. For instance, there is a “100 Things” for Winston-Salem, too, and I happen to know the author for that as well, the talented journalist Tina Firesheets.

I know some internet sharps may wonder why people still need guidebooks when there’s Trip Advisor and other websites with info on what to do in a city, a region, a country.

Well for one, the “100 Things … Fayetteville” has a local writer in Foote with her own local voice. And she has “on-the-ground” experience here in the ’Ville.

Foote said one thing that stood out when she was visiting and researching places is the taste for “soft adventure” around here. She describes it as you won’t climb a mountain here but you can get into the wind tunnel at Paraclete XP, located in Hoke County and listed in the book. Also included: ZipQuest Waterfall & Treetop Adventure, chosen by USA TODAY as one of the 10 best ziplines in the country.

Boo season

Looking at some of the entries sent me down some pleasant, recent memories with my wife, Sarah, and the kids, Samuel, 10, and Helen Ann, 8. The entries are titled in the conversational style of the “100 Things” series. Such as: "Escape Movie Megaplexes at Cameo Art House Theatre" and "Get Lost at Gallberry Corn Maze."

I have done both those things. I have also spent “an afternoon with Friends and Family at Dirtbag Ales Brewery” and I have painted “my Masterpiece at Greg’s Art, Pottery & Gifts and dipped “into Greek Life at Fayetteville’s Greek Festival (as it happens, just last weekend, and many previous years).

On the other hand, there were some things I was surprised I had not already done. Like go to a Fayetteville Marksmen hockey game, or "Halloween at the Boo-Tanical Garden" at Cape Fear Botanical Garden.

But boo season is a busy one for parents of littles.

As my wife puts it, “There are sooo many events. And honestly, there is sooo much candy.”

Nevertheless, this appears to be the year we do the Boo-Tanical with a break in our Halloween (and fall sports!) calendar.

We are members of the garden anyway. Love it. Foote put the garden on the cover, inside the number 100.

“It’s different all year round,” she says, “but it’s beautiful all year round.”

Plus they have good events for families but also ones that are more adult-oriented, Foote said.

I can say we first met our kitties there, but that’s another story that I told here.

Not hard to find

Even as her new book rolls out, Foote is thinking of new places to add.

Like, she says Back-A-Round Records, a vinyl record store near the Market House.

“My husband and I wandered in there on Fourth Friday,” she says. “It’s amazing.”

There are some finds here in Fayetteville, and Foote says, they “are not hard to find.”

In her entry on the planetarium at Fayetteville State University, Foote writes that it reopened in 2022 after a remodel and now has the “highest on-dome resolution of any planetarium in the world.”

She writes that 10 4K projectors can project onto the 30-foot dome the night sky as it appears from “anywhere on Earth.”

“That’s right here in Fayetteville!” she says. “I feel like I want to sing that from the rooftops.”

Nothing to do, indeed.

Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Things to do in Fayetteville, NC, from ziplines to botanical gardens