To spend a couple of hours there once in a while was taking it one step further, that's all.
Took me a while, but here I am now.
Took a while to find a safe place to park, but I found one.
Took a while, but I figured it out after about the third rest stop.
Took me a while to figure out where I'd seen that look before, but I finally did.
All the while, he concluded, "they were taking pictures of me."
It takes a while for this central drama to take shape - a little too long, actually.
Takes me a while to locate the character in a setting, is all.
She went back to bed, took a while to fall asleep again.
I only looked at a couple of them, disassembly takes a while.