"Hey, you want to rent one of those quad bikes? It could be fun and romantic!"
I don't remember which of us suggested it, but we got it in our heads that we wanted to rent one of those double bikes that look like carts. I don't think we really had a plan after that though. So we paid for the bike, the guy pointed us down the street, and we started peddling. And then -
"OMG watch it! We're going to hit those people!"
"Where are we supposed to go!? "
"Cross the street! The walk sign is on!"
"Now we're stuck in the middle of traffic! "
"Excuse us! Please move! Coming through!"
Needless to say, we weren't off to the best start. It was stressful, we were yelling at each other, about to crash into half the city, and to make matters worse, the path we were on was tilted at a steep angle (think like a banked racing track) and we both felt like we were going to fall out or crash into the water. We also realized that only one of us could actually steer the quadcycle even though we both had steering wheels in front of us. The second steering wheel just spun uselessly.
We weren't having fun. It wasn't romantic. Here we were, the day before our 1 year anniversary, and suddenly we weren't sure we were going to make it that long. We continued to peddle in tense silence for a bit, finally feeling less like we were going to crash, but still not having much fun.
About halfway through our trip, we decided to switch positions. Not because we thought it would be fun, but because I wanted Tom to feel the pain of my position, and he wanted me to feel his misery. Real supportive spouse stuff.
And then something weird happened. We switched places, and we were both immediately happier! Suddenly the person steering felt more in control and less stressed. The person not steering could relax and enjoy the ride. Suddenly the ride was almost fun? We laughed at our inability to recognize this obvious solution earlier. If only we'd figured this out at the beginning!
Anyway, marriage lesson learned.