UKIAH, CALIFORNIA

We were supposed to just drive by Ukiah, California we did after all have a hotel booked in charming Petaluma, but my husband was tired and we were both cranky with hunger.  I can tell you it's not easy finding a motel that accepts dogs at the 11th hour.  We ended up pulling up to a motel that took dogs and looked like it was free from bed bugs. My husband kept assuring me that bed bugs only live on the East Coast, but I think he was just saying that to assuage my mania. When we drove into the parking lot in the dead of night I couldn't see two feet ahead of me, so I didn't know that I would wake up to find these cherry blossoms blooming in between the blacktop.  We woke up very early the next morning and the air was thick with haze and soft sunlight, there were so many blooms that everything had a rosy, pink hue to it.  It was quite the sight and will be what I file in my memory bank about Ukiah, gosh knows I want to forget about the nearly $30 pizza we ordered that had a burnt bottom and tasted like sugar coated cardboard.