Oklahoma Nightlife

For Cirrus Air Express, commuting is all the fun. That's because the company does its travelling at high speeds thousands of feet above the ground. It shares its access to the sky with the community by transporting time-critical cargo, and by providing private charter services that jet off to portions of 17 different states. Cirrus Air Express's highly qualified instructors also help aspiring pilots earn certification, teaching students inside aircraft equipped with the most modern avionics available.

Located near the Oklahoma–Arkansas border, Lake Wister State Park is a gateway to the Ouachita National Forest, an area known for its hiking trails and mountain scenery. There are five camping areas throughout the park, each filled with a mix of cabins and sites for tents and RVs. Although the area is surrounded by wilderness, you won’t have to rough it—each site has access to amenities such as comfort stations with showers, full kitchens, and picnic shelters.

Naturally, most visit the state park for its many outdoor pursuits. There’s 115 miles of shoreline, which include a swimming beach and lighted boat ramp. The area is especially popular in the summer, when Lake Wister bustles with water-skiers and anglers out for the water’s catfish and sand bass. Meanwhile, the cabins have direct access to nature trails that show off the resident white-tailed deer, rabbits, and bald eagles. You can also learn more about the local wildlife by checking out the exhibits at the park’s nature center. When the kids aren’t out exploring nature, they can take enjoy the onsite water spray park and miniature golf course.

A team with 20 years of auto-industry experience powers Bula’s Auto Detail, a 6-year-old shop specializing in meticulous vehicle scrub downs. During nuanced cleaning sessions, the veteran staff micromanages dirt with techniques such as spot removal, interior shampooing, and air-vent scrubbing. Larger-scale washes and waxes refresh exteriors, and buffing services ensure that auto hulls are as reflective as disco balls shaped like The Thinker.

Rachel Williams majored in Psychology, but her current clients don't sit on couches. They sit on benches—outdoors, amid fall foliage—or they perch on stone stoops, or frolic through open fields. That's because Rachel transferred her superb people skills from the study of psychology to the study of photography, putting in years of training at several studios in Texas and Oklahoma. Along the way, she learned what doesn't work, namely uniform poses, poor understandings of natural lighting, and trendy color tones that may not stand the test of time and its this understanding that garnered her the Master of Photography title from the Professional Photographers of America. That's why Rachel and her team devote themselves to quality on every front, from their portraits' careful composition to their use of professional lighting and their meticulous retouching of every portrait. This commitment manifests itself in all of Rachel's portraits, as her lens follows families, and newborns through childhood and on to high-school graduation.

The two-story Victorian that holds Miss Addie’s Cafe and Pub has plied visitors with victuals since its inception as a soda fountain and drugstore in 1915. Carrying on the tradition of hospitality started by the druggist and his wife, the eponymous Addie, today’s owners welcome guests with an extensive menu of hearty pub fare. Plated pasta, beef, and seafood entrees adorn white linen tablecloths inside a sunlit dining room, and dark wood wine racks and a brick fireplace imbue a second space with an English pub atmosphere. Private parties mix and mingle amid the upstairs dining room’s rose-colored walls and bookcases. Patrons can also bring Miss Addie’s homestyle cooking home in the form of a cookbook, bottle of salad dressing, or realistic wax effigy of the head chef.

Pecan and fruit trees and ponds full of fish gather around Nuyaka Creek Winery, a bastion for elegant wines made from grapes, orchard-fresh fruits, and wild berries from Creek County. The winery churns out more than two dozen vintages, including a sizable amount of fruit and berry wines—its specialty is a vino made from the elderberry, a fruit purported to have medicinal properties by the ancient Egyptians, Native Americans, and Nobel Laureate Dr. Mary Poppins. In addition to more adventurous styles, Nuyaka Creek cultivates traditional merlot, chardonnay, and newly-planted muscadine grapes, which eventually find their way into bottles and onto shelves throughout Tulsa and Oklahoma City.