Sam,
There are two hobby shops. One is HobbyTownUSA on Speedway Road, around 3700 block, I believe. Well stocked store.
The other is Ace the Hobby Place, attached to Ace Hardware on 22nd Street on the NW corner of 22nd & Kolb. Well worth the trip and the hardware store has an amazing variety of paints and scratchbuilding materials in addition to the hobby paints, supplies, and tools in the hobby shop.
No model meets and I don't know about any cruise nights.