@ct_bergstrom I felt the same (I think) after recently spending nearly a month in the Bay Area. Ended up rereading this passage from John Muir describing his journey through the Santa Clara Valley 150 years ago on the way to Yosemite - disrupted by Europeans but still somewhat intact. A lost world.
@twitskeptic Wow. I'd never read that before. Quite a passage, especially given what is there today.