Are you up North now? I was glued to the computer, watching and listening to NASA TV. I wish I'd sneaked outside for a look up at the sky, although with all the city lights, probably wouldn't have seen much.
We're in San Francisco. The rocket left the atmosphere low on the horizon (< 20 degrees) in the Southern sky. If you don't have a clear view of the North and West horizon (I'm guessing since you're not in Northern CA), you might not have been able to see it.
We have an unobstructed view of the horizon in about a 270 degree swath, so I just pointed out general South for us to keep our eyes on. Sure enough, at 3:02, we saw the rocket scooting off on a column of fire.
The trailing flames looked white on NASA TV, but they were blood red and fireball orange to the naked eye.