My friend in tri state area says a lot of his buddies are going out and drinking, indirectly with the company of total non-Catholics. Alcoholism is RAMPANT, and I mean rampant in traditional Catholic circles.

I could buy this. I think just because alcohol is not expressly forbidden makes a lot of Catholics embrace it. I work with Evangelicals and they treat alcohol like Muslims do, the idea of even drinking a glass of champagne at a wedding ceremony is horrible in their eyes. 

The purpose of alcohol is to accentuate good moments and things. Alcohol does have a wonderful way of bringing out social fluidity when taken in moderation. It can punctuate a celebration excellently well. However, once it takes the form of overt drunkenness then you become a mockery of yourself and are obviously foolish. The worst thing is that drunkenness always makes an awful display of camradarie. When you're drunk you're more prone to act like you love everyone and are more open to express these emotions. I'm sure many people here have had to endure people sloppily tripping over their words to exclaim how much they love someone or care about them, only for the next day the person is ashamed of what they're done and said. 

I've been out before when I was younger. Not a lot. But at the end of the night, I always asked myself: What am I doing, this is a waste of time and I'm tired.

These days, I enjoy sitting in my basement or garage with my Catholic buddies maybe having a drink or two. I never go out, I'm married and my wife rarely drinks, even at social gatherings. Some of the guys I hang with drink, and some of them are rough around the edges, but it's hard enough to find Catholic who aren't total pills as well. You need balance.

Right about now, I’m more concerned with recent attacks against Christians. 
A fun way to socialize is workout and target practice. We need to prepare spiritually too.

Second on the target practice suggestion.  Pumpkin/Jack of the Lantern blasting-fest is coming up quickly. 

As a lifelong photography hobbyist, I have become interested in new niches, panoramic photography and HDR (High Dynamic Range) that require software post-processing (Adobe Lightroom), so in the last year I have discovered that among the best urban vantage points are "sky bars." Open air, without window reflections, nearly 360° horizon, and dramatic sunset and nighttime skies are artistic advantages.

So, as recently as 2 months ago I enjoyed a snack and a drink at a sky bar. Does that qualify as nightlife?

I don’t like walking at night in the city or in general. Just paranoid I guess. I guess the nightlife that I experienced was eating at restaurants with university peers and talking. It was loud but it was nice to socialize.

Now that we have a child, we’ll sometimes eat out when we’re doing long trips. We had a good experience at a Korean BBQ place. You can grill your own meat on the hot plate at your table. And dim sum is a good experience. The staff will bring carts around with different types of Chinese food.

Definitely better restaurants in the city and access to different cuisines. Since we live in the rural, there’s less to do except there are golf courses, outdoor activities, national parks, etc. but we’re homebodies and we have a good amount of acreage that we can forage and enjoy the privacy.

I can say, my favourite parts of cities are the museums, I can spend hours in them. Also the zoos are fun. 

Last time I went out and participated in “nightlife” would be about 1978 when I was in college. I don’t say I enjoyed nightlife. I just tried it out, and it fell short of the mark. I never went out when still under my parents’ roof as my parents’ rule was, “not until you’re of age AND no longer living under our roof. If we were going to get drunk, stoned, engage in wild behavior, know for certain you didn’t learn it from us.