I grew up in North Carolina, moved to the Bay Area, then moved back to NC.

I loved the Bay Area. I lived (rented) in Menlo Park and Burlingame, before ending up in Livermore just before I moved back. The peninsula was the best, but I got tired of the traffic. Livermore allowed me to live just a few minutes away from the "good life" and still feel like I was in a small town.

Of course, it has been twenty years since I left California, so things may have changed for the worse.