No trip back home is complete without French dip at Philippe's or a night out at Firecracker. I've been going to Firecracker since it weren't no thang but a chicken wang because it's the best- a jazz bar downstairs (with a mic open to those who've got the pipes and the guts), djs upstairs making everyone dance, djs outside making everyone dance and now there's even an ice cream truck (and one with a mission at that).
Seeing as it's been ages since my last time there, there were a lot of new faces, making me nostalgic for the old days when I could show up solo and count on seeing a group of buddies there. But you can't be too melancholy when you're surrounded by a ton of people doing the samba, so we went with the flow and partied like old times.