San Francisco is remarkable

I am in the Bay area for a wedding this weekend, and, having not been here for about 30 years, I can fully admit that it's like the first time I've ever been. We flew into SFO and wormed our way north to Petaluma, where we are staying, meaning a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge, after a drive along the Pacific Coast.
One thing that really struck me is how confined by the local geography the region is. Sure, everyone knows that San Francisco exists at the end of a Peninsula that frames San Francisco Bay, and the waters of the Bay, and San Pablo Bay to the north require some serious feats of civil engineering to connect all residents of the area.
One aspect I didn't really appreciate, however, was the effect the topography has on the Bay area. Los Angeles is built on a coastal plain, while the Coastal Range is generally well inland, only approaching the coast up by Malibu, allowing the city and the metro to stretch out over a broad territory. The Bay doesn't give as long a runway to terrain changes as the Los Angeles area does.
It's flatter on the east side of the Bay, certainly, but the larger city, the hub of the metropolitan area is San Francisco. Even the narrow protrusion into the sea is riddled with hills. The Twin Peaks in the middle of the city have dictated the road ways while larger hills in the southern part of the Peninsula help to render the Pacific Coast and Daly City into a landscape that seems completely unfamiliar to the rest fo the city.
The hills and valleys and the waterways funnel the population, which makes traffic worse and lends to localized overcrowding, however the frequent hills and the variety of plant life that clings to them paradoxically can make a lot of the area seem almost rural, something that I never feel when driving through the suburbs of Minneapolis, and especially not as I get closer to downtown. And yet, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, or just southwest of the downtown area, it feels so natural and far removed from the hustle and bustle.
Not only does the terrain effect the anthropological variables in the region, it also has a great impact on the meteorology. People can make broad generalizations about LA, because again, Los Angeles is mostly uniform. Coastal Plains to Coastal Range, and generalizations can be made about it. The Bay is all about microclimates. The local meteorologists advertise their newscasts as "Microclimate weather." I've already heard people talk about the microclimate, and provide personal references, so I'll share a couple.
First, we landed in the fog in San Francisco, and spent most of the morning in the same. I told my wife that it would probably be different when we crossed the Bridge, and sure enough, the higher elevation north of San Francisco meant no low level winds and no sea breeze. Sure enough, from our side of the bridge, under low clouds and fog, we could see the sun shining on the hills across the Bay.
I also heard someone discussing the weather they usually saw in the Mission District, which sits between the Twin Peaks and downtown. Because of their location, they often miss out on the fog the rest of the city gets. The Mission is usually sunnier and warmer than their neighbors, which my new friend said was like having the opposite of a personal cloud.
It's an extremely interesting place, it's fascinating to learn about and take in first hand. I would love to be bale to spend more time here. But not to live. Property values in this little slice of heaven are through the roof.