Alas, LA, goodbye

Friday brought the last day of class and my last day in LA. I have been to enough classes to know that Friday afternoon usually ends around 2pm. Yet, when I was in San Diego, it went until 4:30 and worth every minute of learning. So, I scheduled my return flight for 6:45pm. We got out around 3pm and I hung around a little catching up on email and doing some busy work. Finally, I decided to head to LAX. Everyone said it could get crazy with lines on a Friday, so I gave myself extra time. After dropping off the car and getting to the airport, I whisked through all the lines like a bat out of hell. I was at the gate almost 2 hrs before my flight. The story of my life. I hit the bar, had a beer and read my book. When 5:45 rolled around, I went to get some food and then off to the gate. Upon arrival, I was informed that the flight was now delayed until 8pm. Argh! I took it in stride, sat down and began to read, eventually nodding off for a quick nap.
Around 7:15pm, I wandered over to the departures screen for an update and now the flight was listed as canceled. OMG.
I'm not going to go into the long story of my return trip. The flight was canceled, we were rebooked, the flight was re-instated, we were rebooked and then the flight was canceled again. In the end, I was rebooked through SFO and then home. I got back to Portland around 1:30, yet my luggage was left behind in SFO. Got home around 2am after a little fight with the cabbie over if he would take a credit card or not. A very very long day, but I was glad to be home.

In the end, LA was awesome. Wish I could have spent it with my honey and didn't have to spend all day in class. Wish I had stayed closer to the fun instead of so far away which required so much driving. Wish I had been able to hang out on the beach and either watch the sunrise or sunset every night. Though, it was a great trip.