Jig and Jog

This weekend I went to San Francisco. My parents were having a St. Patrick’s Day party on St. Joseph’s Day (Saturday.)  Travis wasn’t able to make it up there with me because he left for six week son the road today and needed the weekend to pack.  So, on Friday morning Travis took me into work, and in the evening he picked me up.  We stopped at The Habit for a quick early dinner before heading to LAX.

My burger was ok, nothing to write home about.  My flight was scheduled to leave LAX at 8:40pm and I got to the airport extra early, I think around 5:30. It was my first time flying Virgin America and I didn’t know what to expect, or if there would be long lines.  Virgin America is definitely the cool kid airline.  When you walk up to their counter at LAX there is a marked difference in the appearance and atmosphere.  Virgin has mood lighting, and carpets, and plays popular music loudly. It’s also got sleek looking computer terminals for you to check in, and print your boarding passes.  I had already checked in, and paid for my one checked bag online at home, so all I had to do was stand in line.  Here’s where things got a little confusing.  The lines aren’t labeled all that well, and even though there seemed to be a lot of workers, the line I was in, wasn’t moving.  In fact, the desk agents were taking people from other lines who had arrived after the woman in front of me had.  Eventually, after a few minutes wait, I got to check my bag, and head through security.

Once I got to the gates, I didn’t see my own gate, but knew I had a lot of time.  So, I grabbed some water and a seat and read for a little while.  Then, I started hearing the announcements about the delays facing the flight to San Francisco before my flight.  That particular flight was supposed to leave at 6:55pm and I hadn’t originally booked it because my work schedule was still having me finished at 5:30.  When I realized there was a weather delay, I wanted to find my gate right away and wait there, so I approached an agent at the desk (by the way, the whole gate area that Virgin is in is huge and open and really noisy.)

All I asked was where to find Gate 34, but the agent immediately asked if I wanted to be put on the earlier flight.  I figured why the hell not, since all flights going to San Francisco were now facing up to a two hour weather delay.  This meant my original flight, which was scheduled to arrive in San Francisco at 9:55 would not be arriving until 11:55.  I got on the earlier flight which ended up boarding at about 8:20pm (almost 2 full hours after it was supposed to depart,) and then, we sat on the runway for an hour.  Because the flight had been so delayed, there had been some kind of communication error with the Air Traffic Control tower.  We sat, and waited.  I read (Thank goodness I had a book!)

I finally arrived in San Francisco at 11pm I was exhausted, and hungry. I had neglected to purchase a snack at the airport, not realizing I would wait for so long.

On Saturday, I got my hair cut, yay! It had been 10 months since my last haircut, so I was pretty stoked.

It’s not a drastic change, just sweepy bangs (sorry Clare and Lani!) and some texturized layers, but it’s definitely nice to have something different.

I also ran errands and helped clean the house and get set up for the party on Saturday.  Sadly, I was so busy playing hostess with my parents that I wasn’t able to get any pictures, but there was dancing and singing (as per usual,) and food and drinks.  I stuck with two glasses of red wine for the entire evening.

I also got lots of hangout time with these ladies

Sunday, my flight didn’t leave SFO until 7:10pm so I had the whole day Sunday to rest, and help my parents clean up the aftermath of the party which went well past midnight. What can I say, my parents are party animals

You would be too if you had one of these in your house!

Yes, my parents have a full bar with beer (Guinness) on tap in their house. People always ask me why I ever moved out.

When I got to SFO I made sure I grabbed some snacks for the plane and was excited to note that we boarded on time. Everything was great until we were all on the plane, and were told that LAX had stopped allowing flights to land. So, we sat for an hour on the runway at SFO, and by the time we got to LAX had to sit on the runway another hour before a gate was available.  All in all I spent about 5 hours on planes this weekend.  All for about two days with my parents.  It was rough.  After the airport, Travis and I got sushi, which ended up making my stomach feel really gross all night.  When I dropped him off this morning to catch a ride with his production crew I ended up just going home instead of going into work.  My stomach felt that terrible.  I laid low most of the day, finished my book (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,) and did the dishes.  I finally got myself out of the apartment to get groceries around 4pm.

What’s your worst travel story? I think my absolute worst would be a couple Easters ago when I had a really bad case of the flu and had to fly from Phoenix to LAX.  It was awful!