Durham · Chapel Hill · Raleigh · August 14, 2026

Last Ride on Capital Boulevard, New DPS Bus Partnership, and a Museum Full of Video Games

⚡ Quick Hits

🚌 Half of Durham's school buses ran late to high schools last spring.
🎢 Adventure Landing closes for good Sunday after 38 years.
🎮 The NC Museum of Art holds its first Games Together Festival on Saturday.

First Up

Adventure Landing has sat on Capital Boulevard for 38 years, and Sunday is the last day. Mini golf, go-karts, the arcade, two generations of birthday parties and Easter egg hunts. The lease wasn't renewed, and the company is asking anyone still holding arcade tokens, tickets, Groupons, or gift certificates to come spend them before the doors close. (WRAL)

📰 Around the Triangle

Half of Durham's school buses ran late to high schools last spring: the district says every route is covered this year, with a GoDurham partnership and new express stops. (INDY Week)
A Durham playwright turned her time in a psychiatric hospital into a musical: COMMITTED runs through August 30 at The Fruit, DIY sets and singing beds included. (INDY Week)
A small group is making real money off North Carolina's affordable housing tax break: an INDY investigation found a handful of lawyers, firms, and registered nonprofits pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. (INDY Week)
Duke Energy gave regulators wrong information under oath, the attorney general says: Jeff Jackson won't sign the latest proposed settlement on the rate hike. (NC Newsline)
Flock Safety says safeguards are coming to its cameras in January: the CEO answered the privacy backlash Thursday and promised auditing for law enforcement customers. (WRAL)
Chapel Hill is moving ahead with a new fire station and affordable housing: both would land at Weaver Dairy Road Extension and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. (Chapelboro)
The World University Games are coming here in 2029: the Triangle and parts of the Triad will host the largest student-athlete event in the world. (INDY Week)

📅 Plan Your Week

🎮 Friday, August 14 (Today)

Level Up Live: Boxyard RTP, 900 Park Offices Drive, Durham, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Free, and a live band plays the video game music while you play the games. 👨‍👩‍👧 (Details)
Hush Hush: Improv Comedy Based on Your Secrets: Mettlesome, Durham. The cast works from anonymous audience confessions dropped in a bucket. (Details)
Deere John opening reception: Peel Gallery, 708 W Rosemary Street, Carrboro, 6 to 9 p.m. Live screenprinting and a DJ, part of the Second Friday walk. (Details)
Museum Movie Night: Galaxy Quest: NC Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W Jones Street, Raleigh, 5:30 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $5. (Details)

🎪 Saturday, August 15

4th Annual Kick Kancer Block Party: The Pavilion at Durham Central Park. Free and family-friendly, built around families dealing with childhood cancer. 👨‍👩‍👧 (Details)
Songs for Humans Singalong: The Common Market, 660 Blackwell Street, Durham, 6 p.m. Free, and no one is auditioning you. (Details)
Kate McGarry & Keith Ganz Quartet: Sharp 9 Gallery, 4608 L Industry Lane, Durham, 7 p.m. Tickets run $20 to $35, doors 45 minutes early. (Details)
Games Together Festival: NC Museum of Art, 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Free, and the first one they've done — video games and tabletop games all day. 👨‍👩‍👧 (Details)
Carolina Hurricanes Yard Sale: Lenovo Center, 1400 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Team merch at least half off, out on the South Plaza. (Details)

🛝 Sunday, August 16

Melanated Creatives Market: Durham Central Park, 2 to 6 p.m. (Details)
Phone Free Fun: Glass Jug Downtown, Durham. Everyone sets the phone aside and remembers how this used to work. (Details)
Adventure Landing's last day: Capital Boulevard, Raleigh. Bring the tokens you've had in a drawer since 2019. (Details)

🎶 Monday, August 17

Dancefulness for the Soul: Durham Arts Council, Durham. Mindfulness meditation and free-style dancing, better than that sounds. (Details)
Sunset Serenade: Polk Place, UNC, Chapel Hill. Carolina's a cappella groups sing on the first evening of fall classes, same as always. (Details)

🎺 Tuesday, August 18

Connor Lee Quartet: A Tribute to Miles & Trane: Sharp 9 Gallery, 4608 L Industry Lane, Durham, 7 p.m. Ten to fifteen dollars for a night of Miles and Coltrane. (Details)

💬 Heard Around Town

Several Durham restaurants picked up a 'B' sanitation score in the past month, two of them on Ninth Street, and a neighbor posted the list as a public service. (Thread)
A critical care nurse six years into the job at Duke found out the new grad they're precepting makes $39 an hour, and asked the sub what they're all going to do about it. (Thread)
Somebody is drawing old Chapel Hill photos as then-and-now postcards and asking locals to help place the ones they can't identify. (Thread)
A black kitten with one grey toe was living on level 6 of the RDU parking deck and may have hitched a ride under somebody's hood on the 12th. Pop your hood. (Thread)

🍴 Openings & Closings

The Eno Arts Mill is open again: the Hillsborough arts space reopened with renovations a year after Tropical Storm Chantal flooded it. (Chapelboro)
A combination Jimmy John's and Baskin-Robbins opened at 143 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill. (Chapelboro)

🏡 Triangle Pulse

Adventure Landing closes Sunday, but Raleigh still has the fifth-oldest operating amusement park in the country — Pullen Park opened in 1887, and its hand-carved Dentzel carousel was built around 1900. (City of Raleigh)

Before You Go

Raleigh's Capital City Greenway runs about 120 miles now, through 3,700 acres of protected land — WUNC went back through how a city talked itself into building all of it. (WUNC)

Also this week: somebody a month into living in Durham posted to r/bullcity for no reason except to say the place has been better than they expected. (Thread)

🧠 Brain break: today's Daily Fury is live. Five questions, the same five for everyone. Defend the Triangle's honor.

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