Flew back to California last night. I arrived in San Diego at 2:45 am rather than 9:25 pm, but still count myself lucky. Our plane, scheduled to depart at 5:50, boarded at 7:40 and sat on the runway for another hour, the northbound runway at JFK closed because of weather. I thought we had it made when we finally departed, and marveled at snowy landscapes dully luminous in the light of a full moon... Then, just west of Denver, our pilot informed us that we were heading for an 11:45 landing in San Diego, but San Diego has an 11:30 curfew, so we would instead be landing at Ontario, one of Los Angeles' regional airports, and complete the final stretch by bus (2 hours).The flight attendant assured us that we were lucky to be flying Jet Blue; other airlines would have canceled the flight. Maybe so. But other airlines might have flown into San Diego: turns out the curfew is only for take-offs, not landings. We were diverted to Ontario so that the plane could pick up a new load of passengers, and fly them, red-eye, to Washington, DC! I'm happy those folks got to their destination in time for Christmas, but a bit resentful that this was at my expense in time and mid-night taxi fare.
Oh well, clouds have silver linings. Thanks to the delays I did get to hear a fine jazz combo play "In a sentimental mood" at the terminal at JFK (how I love Ellington!), see sparkling Las Vegas from the air, and experience San Diego's fourteen-lane freeways empty of cars.
