she's now just a dot on the map

I'm almost to California! Oregon feels really foreign to me for some strange reason. I think it's the gas pumping thing. I keep thinking I'm in Canada or something. I don't know how you Oregonians do it, I like to pump my own gas, freaks me out having someone else do it! I'm about an hour from the Redwoods, so I'll get there pretty early tomorrow. I'm really excited, I've never been to the Redwoods before. One of my good friends in college took a couple summer road trips with his friends and they went down the California coast too. I just remember being really jealous of their roadtrip and wished I could go too. The photos they took looked so fun! I think if the Redwoods are a nice place to stay I might just park it there for a few days. I've been driving for a few days solid, so it might be nice to settle somewhere for a couple days.

LB and I were having fun traipsing around this beach and all of a sudden a rogue wave came up and got me wet all the way up to my knees. Poor Little Bit was almost swept out to sea! She was swimming around all panicked, trying not to be pulled into the ocean. Luckily it wasn't that big of a wave, so she only just got wet (and I didn't have to drop all my stuff and swim out in the ocean to save her). Still, she gave me the stink eye for like 10 minutes and wouldn't walk next to me. She was walking all huffy about 20 feet away, haha.

top/pilot shop in anchorage :: skirt/thrifted :: shoes/courtesy of darlingtonia :: shade/gas station

As I've been driving down the coast, I've really enjoyed slipping through the small coastal towns. When I was younger I used to want to live somewhere like that. A small town, surrounded by beautiful country. Now I feel differently. I don't know, I guess I would feel useless in a small town like that. I want to make a difference in the lives of people, and I feel like I belong in a more city setting. Not a city like Seattle, LA, or New York- a smaller city more like Spokane or Anchorage. I always loved living in Spokane because it felt very accessible to me. It was big enough to have everything I'd need, and big enough to have a diverse population, but small enough that I didn't feel overwhelmed. Anchorage is the same way. It's actually very similar in size to Spokane. I feel lucky to have lived in cities that I've really liked. I know I was negative about Spokane, but that was really only in reference to the emotional reaction that I had while there.

These photos are from just outside of Tillamook in Netart Bay. One of my amazing readers suggested that I check out Netart Bay, so I took a little jaunt off of 101 to go check it out. It was beautiful and I'm really glad that I took the byway to go see it. If you guys ever have any suggestions for places I should check out, please tweet at me or leave a comment. I can't promise I'll be able to go visit it, but if it's along my way, I'll definitely go take a look!

I haven't done a legit travel post in a few days and I have like a hundred pictures to share, so maybe when I have good enough internet to upload them I'll get a travel post up. Be prepared for lots of Brave glamour shots and the pictures of the coast.

Majestic much, Brave?