A few must-haves for a good road trip

There are a few essentials to a good road trip. I'd figure I'd list a few of the things I'd call must-haves after the road trip to seattle on saturday.

1. Every good road trip has to start out with a good cup of coffee.

2. Seeing a passport photo that's even worse that yours: Props to Brett for allowing the world to see his incredible passport photo. I don't know if i've ever seen anything quite like it. Even the American border guard giggled (and they never laugh)

3. A giant potato: clearly a road trip isn't a road trip without ingesting a giant baked potato. This thing was the size of a football - who knew potatoes could even grow that large

the football-sized potato

4. A little shopping action: Nothing says shopping like a trip to the outlet mall. I figure I'll just make my home at Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip, WA. I bought so much stuff I should just be shot.

Cam shopping in Old Navy - this was just after he paused to comb his hair in the middle of the store (i kid you not!)

5. Violent rain and wind: Nothing makes you want to walk the streets in downtown Seattle more than violent rain and wind that continuously flips your umbrella inside out. It just wouldn't have been the same without it.

All of that bad weather made for a beautiful picture

6. Another good cup of coffee: it's a long day, you need to fuel up

7. Getting completely lost at least 4 times: Yes, apparently I'm an inept navigator, but I was able to navigate my way back to the original route on all four (or more) occasions. What can I say, I got nervous and forced an exit off the 520 onto the 405. At least it spawned a useful come-back "It's not my fault, I have mono!"

8. At least one more cup of coffee: come on, who doesn't need three giant cups in one day?

the original starbucks at pike place market

9. A super duper mega-church with shuttle buses in the parking lot: The church that the concert was at (Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, WA) was absolutley huge! There were about 8 parking lots joined together and they had separate lanes for shuttle buses which would drop you off at the door of the church. Seriously, this church was HUGE!

10. A sweet, sweet concert: Adie, Hawk Nelson and Jeremy Camp were amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better concert.

11. A late-night dinner stop at Denny's: There's nothing sweeter than late-night country fried potatoes.

12. Leaving the door to the car wide open in the pouring rain while enjoying late-night Denny's: what can i say, Cam's a genius! Apparently he thought that Janine was following him out of the car, but that would have been incorrect. Instead of shutting the door it was left wide open until some random guy made an annoucement in the middle of Denny's. Boy did we feel like tools.

My four road trip friends - Cammy, Rach, Janine, Brett

13. Bringing back $300 dollars in goods and not having to pay duty at the border: Enough said