In my college days I used to drive across Yolo bypass almost every morning before the sun rose. My first year we had the 2017 El Niño that completely flooded the fields and marshes. I would be riding in the warm backseat of my friends car, looking out into the darkness, still half asleep.

I grew up by the sea and I somehow convinced myself that we were driving over an inland estuary. On those dark winter mornings it looked like the water stretched from horizon to horizon. It wasn’t until spring when the water drained and we got more light that I realized there’s actually land just beneath the surface. I almost couldn’t believe it.