Yep, I felt the same way. Everything in the west seemed brown to me. When I lived there, and I came back east, the greenness was so "real." I came to appreciate the beauty of the west, but since living in Phoenix is just living in endless stucco/suburban sprawl, I rarely got to see the "real" west. It was there when I moved to AZ, but disappeared shortly thereafter. That's why we left.
One of the saddest things I have on videotape is my 2 and 4 year old kids playing in the foundation plants of my house in Tempe, saying, "We're in the woods!" I think you can hear me say in the background, "I am outta here!"