Things to Do in Lumberton

Deborah Reavis, the resident artist at Wine, Paint & Canvas, has nearly two decades of teaching art under her belt, making her an excellent tutor for classrooms full of fledgling painters of all ages. Seated in front of rows of provided easels and surrounded by the works of past classes, students follow their instructors’ directions to produce the evening’s piece. Though everyone works from the same template, each student has the chance to stylistically personalize their work by mixing colors or painting only the coolest facial hair on self-portraits. Before brush touches canvas, guests can mingle over glasses of BYO wine and bottles of beer, with soda available for purchase.

Scampering through Lazer FX–Lazer Tag's 7,500-square-foot labyrinth, combatants volley photons in exhilarating 20-minute skirmishes. Laser soldiers don luminescent vests and DayGlo bowties before entering the arena, where a mix of 30-odd friends and foes dodge blasts while darting from refuge to refuge. For groups of four, the battle extends out of the arena and onto the 8,000-square-foot arcade floor. Here, more than 120 games—including pool tables, skee-ball lanes, driving simulators, and air hockey—promote hand-eye coordination more effectively than soccer.

Since opening its doors in 2009, Elite Zone has entertained adult gamers with computer- and console-based amusements. Equipped with Turtle Beach headsets, gamers play the latest Xbox releases on LCD televisions while chatting wirelessly with Xbox Live account holders and truck drivers on the wrong CB channel. A high-speed Internet connection facilitates glitch-free gaming for PC users and ensures quick page loads for web surfing. Elite Zone also carries a bevy of caffeinated beverages to fuel round-the-clock gaming and enliven sleep-deprived avatars.

Golf Augusta of North Carolina equips putters for their next round on the green in a 5,000-square-foot facility overflowing with equipment, apparel, and accessories. Golfers can elevate their tee-off through customized fittings, which use Shaft Optimizer technology to pair clubs with an interchangeable variety of heads and shafts alongside irons matched to each player based on their style of play and number of left hands. Alongside an abundance of brand-name garments, gloves, balls, and bags, Golf Augusta of North Carolina fits feet with a selection of more than 4,000 pairs of shoes.

Extreme Laser Tag sets the stage for space-age combat with its labyrinth of smoky corridors, ramps, and neon-lit walls. Equipped with Nexus Generation laser-tag technology, the arena can host up to 60 vested combatants as they split into teams and vie for points by scoring chest shots on their opponents.

Large plasma monitors outside the arena display the hectic battles in real time, with beam-by-beam battle stats showing who is the scoring leader and who has been melted into plasmic goo. The facility frequently accommodates birthday parties, large corporate gatherings, and fundraiser groups; everyday customers and private partiers often join in battlefield alliances, exacting laser-powered revenge on bosses and double-crossing imaginary friends.

For a few centuries, Carver’s Falls was closed to the public, and it's easy to see how much the area benefited from that solitude. The natural beauty of its forests and the waterfall at its heart have flourished. But today, the tree canopy has been transformed into an aerial playground. Wires cross the sky, connecting tree to tree. Every day, ZipQuest's guides lead birds-eye tours of the pristine landscape on their expansive zipline network or via the Swing Shot that pendulums vertiginously above Carver's Creek.

Whether the lighting comes from the sun or helmet-mounted lamps, no fewer than two experienced guides lead guests through Carver's Falls' 2.5-hour course. Adventurers fly down eight ziplines—each designed for a long, leisurely glide or an adrenaline-pumping plunge—while pointing out local flora and fauna. Groups pause only to disembark on high platforms anchored to centuries-old trees. Floating spiral staircases and sky bridges, the longest of which stretches 210 feet, interconnect the platforms. A suspension bridge carries explorers over the falls to a penultimate zipline that runs parallel to its creek. At the end of the run, guests catch their breath while looking through the pictures their camera-wielding guide took.