Beach, Boston's, Amber Leigh, Scott Avery and Spiked Coffee: The Peddler Wednesday-Night Irregulars Go to Florida

If you got to plan the weather you would enjoy during a five-day South Florida boondoggle, you wouldn't have wound up with better weather than the Peddler Wednesday-Night Irregulars and I have had during this long weekend. It has been sunny and in the low 80s every day.

Yes, it's been just about perfect.

You might not think that we could manage to squeeze any beach time in around our nearly nonstop imbibing, but you would be wrong.

We've been to the beach the past two days. The Atlantic has been smooth as glass and the water temp in the mid to high 70s.

It's high season here. Driving down the street it is easy to be blinded by the white and blue Ontario license plates crowding I-95. If you haven't heard my South FL tourist joke, here it is: The definition of happiness in South Florida is 100,000 Canadians heading for home with a New Yorker stuffed under each arm.

We've had our fair share of music while here.

On Friday night we trooped into The Duck in Boca Raton and enjoyed Scott Avery's first set. The Duck is one of the few joints in Boca where you can smoke; consequently every person in the place seems compelled to puff away without pause. Most of our group snuck in without producing a pack of cigarettes for the doorman, qualifying us for admittance. The rest of our group contributed the required air-fouling smoke to the joint's atmosphere. 

For our Saturday beach visit we valet parked at Boston's. If you can show a receipt when picking up your car, three hours of parking is only $8 -- a Delray Beach bargain. After lazing on the beach for about an hour, we adjourned to Boston's for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised that Amber Leigh's band was scheduled to play on Boston's stage that afternoon. We had a table about 10 feet from the stage.

Amber has been fiddling professionally since she was 13 or 14. Her performance didn't begin until 2 p.m.. Although we were done eating, we voted to hang around to catch the first 30 min of her performance. It was well worth the extra round of drinks. Democracy in action.

South Florida is brimming with folks holding social memberships in the Wednesday-Night Irregulars. They own property in the Greenville area and because they either can't sell their FL homes or can't figure out how to generate an income in Greenville, or some combination of the two, they just haven't moved yet.

Our hosts invited several of them and some other friends to their house on Saturday night for a little gathering. Before you could say, "garage band," a few of the guys broke out instruments and did some jamming.

It's about 9:00 Sunday morning and I am sipping on a cup of coffee laced with Bailey's. We have to get cleaned up to get over to the home of friends who are hosting brunch. Bloody Marys, Screw Drivers and Mimosas, now that's breakfast!