Site Consultant / Quality of Life

Regional Recreation

From whatever your preferred form of recreation, Wake County has something to offer everyone.  Sports fans can enjoy both collegiate and professional games including baseball, hockey, and football.  Golfers can choose from numerous private and public courses including the Tournament Player’s Club (TPC) course at Wakefield Plantation, one of only two TPC courses in North Carolina.  Only an hour away, one may experience Pinehurst, host of the 2005 US Open.   For the culturally diverse, there is an assortment of museums, festivals, and theaters.  Raleigh’s performing Arts offers all four disciplines, ballet, theater, symphony, and opera.  The outdoorsman can take an advantage of Wake County’s seven area lakes offering fishing, water skiing, and boating.  Come take in the many sites and sounds of this blossoming region.

Cultural Attractions

North Carolina Symphony

www.ncsymphony.org

Experience American’s next great orchestra.  The North Carolina Symphony is a full-time, professional orchestra with 65 members.  With its home in Raleigh, North Carolina’s spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall, the symphony performs approximately 60 concerts a year in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area.  The orchestra has made appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Orchestra Hall in Chicago.  In addition, the Symphony has released five recordings, the latest being “Sketches: 2004-05” with Music Director Grant Llewellyn, featuring a work composed by the Symphony’s own bass trombonist, Terry Mizesko.  Some of the top soloists in the world, such as Itzhak Perlman, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pinchas Zukerman and Lynn Harrell, have performed with the North Carolina Symphony.

North Carolina Theatre

www.nctheatre.com

Enjoy plays and musicals by the region’s top professional theatre.  North Carolina Theatre produces some of the most outstanding professional Broadway plays and musicals in the area.  The first musical production, Camelot, opened in May of 1984,  NC School of the Arts graduate Terry Mann whose Broadway credits now include Javert in Les Miseralbles, The Beast in Beauty and The Beast, Chauvelin in Scarlet Pimpernel and Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, played “King Arthur” and a University of NC student, Sharon Lawrence whose credits most recently include Sylvia Stipowitz on NYPD Blue, Velma Kelly in Chicago and many other roles on TV, Stage and Film; played “Guenivere.” The Theatre has developed a successful formula of producing top quality plays and musicals, top national performers and local talent.

Carolina Ballet

www.carolinaballet.com

Treat yourself to a performance from one of the top ten ballet companies of the United States.  Carolina Ballet was launched in 1997, under the direction of artistic director Robert Weiss.  The Company is comprised of 30 dancers representing 9 countries around the world.  Most of the male dancers are from outside the country and one of the female dancers is from China; however, there are several new male dancers from the United States.  The other countries represented are Russia, Moldavia, Cuba, Uruguay, Hungary, Canada, Armenia and the ballet master is from Romania.  The company’s work has been praised in several national publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time.

The Opera Company of North Carolina

www.operanc.com

Come and be transformed through the presentation of excellent Opera productions by one of the leading opera companies in the South. The company’s operatic talent includes internationally renowned superstars as well as the rising young stars of tomorrow-performing arias, scenes and ensembles from opera’s most admired works.  Represented by the cast is a century of international arts experience in opera, dance, symphonic music and theater.  Due to the quality of this company’s productions and the interesting, balanced repertoire presented, this company is recognized as one of the best in the region.

ALLTEL Pavilion at Walnut Creek

www.alltellpavilion.com

This magnificent facility hosts concerts and festivals including performances by the biggest national and international musical superstars touring the world today. Spectacular design and a park-like setting distinguish the magical outdoor setting of the Alltel Pavillion at Walnut Creek as one of the premiere music centers in the world.  Join with music fans from across the Carolinas each summer at Alltel Pavillion at Walnut Creek for an experience like no other!

Museums

Visit some of the finest world class museums in the Southeast.  From the art connoisseur to the history buff, there is a museum of interest in the region just for you.

North Carolina Museum of Art

www.ncartmuseum.org

North Carolina Museum of History

www.ncmuseumofhistory.org

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

www.naturalscienc es.org

Exploris

www.exploris.org

Collegiate Sports

Come see three nationally high-ranking men’s and women’s teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference compete in football, basketball, soccer and other sports.

NC State University Wolfpack

www. gop ack.com

Duke University Blue Devils

www.godu e.com

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels

www.goheels.com

Professional Sports

Hockey

Carolina Hurricanes www.caneshockey.com – Carolina is one of the hottest teams in hockey and has one of the best records in the NHL.   The Canes were the 2002 Eastern Conference Champions.

Golf

Tournment Player’s Club at Wakefield Plantation

At the heart of Wakefield Plantation is the Hale Irwin designed PGA TOUR 18-hole TPC golf course and clubhouse. Owned and operated by the PGA TOUR, the golf course is decidedly world-class. This course features 7,195 yards of tree-lined fairways designed to challenge golfers of all skill levels.

www.tpcatwakefieldplantation.com

Pinehurst

Pinehurst offers Southern hospitality, elegant accommodations, luxury spa facilities, family recreational activities, and of course, any one of their eight pristine world-class golf courses.  Pinehurst has hosted more championships than any other golf course in the country. Come experience golf courses made for legends.

Fishing

Lake Johnson

4601 Avent Ferry Road

Raleigh, NC 27606

Park Office: 919-233-2121

This fishing and boating lake is known for its large-mouth bass and crappie fishing.  Fishing is permitted from the boardwalk, rental boats, or personal boats.

Lake Wheeler

6404 Lake Wheeler Road

Raleigh, NC 27603

Park Office: 919-662-5704

This lake offers large-mouth bass and crappie.

Patrons may launch private boats, motorized or non motorized at Lake Wheeler.

Shelley Lake

1400 West Millbrook Road,

Raleigh, NC 27614

Park Office: 919-420-2331

Common fish found in this lake are largemouth bass, catfish, sunfish, bream, crappie, and carp.  Bank fishing is allowed anywhere around the lake.  Fishing is also permitted from the bridge, fishing pier, and rental boats.

Additional areas of Interest

www.visitraleigh.com/visit/thingstodo.html