Next, Mark took me to another part of town, way in the back, where I could get a phenomenal city view. We climbed a large hill (Bernal Hill, perhaps), with antennas clustered on top, and perched atop it. From this point, all of San Francisco spread out before and below us.

You could see downtown, off to one end, and the multitude of crackerbox houses between here and there. It was startling to see how compressed everything was. In the Midwest, we are used to a bit of distance between buildings. And a few trees in the yard. Not so, here. Every available foot of space was taken up with ground-hugging real estate. But, I suppose one can get used to it.