On the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers...

...and I think I'll take passenger status, thanks.

Early in our dating relationship, Bret said "I do the driving in this relationship". My feminist side immediately rose up in indignation. I'm perfectly capable of driving, I huffed. I don't need to be chauffeured around, I puffed. Did Bret have control issues or did he lack confidence in my driving skills? A little of both, he said. He said in general, he prefers driving...and in specific, he'd noticed somewhat of a "tendency toward easy distractibility" on my part - as in, I'd rather carry on a conversation than drive.

Harrumph. (so what if he's right, harrumph anyway)

Well I quickly learned that I love to passenge. (It's not a word, but it should be. If a driver drives, why doesn't a passenger passenge?) I get to look out the window at the scenery, or read, or play on my DS, or sleep, or - and this is my favorite - give a conversation my full attention.

Two summers ago, Bret taught me how to drive a motorcycle. Not a fancy-schmancy heavy street bike...just my little dual sport (dirt bike licensed for the street since it has mirrors and blinkers).

Oh sure, this hill looks harmless enough now. But when I was just learning, sitting on top of the bike at the top of the hill, I was extremely nervous about it. I had to sit there for a few minutes trying to psyche myself up to go forward.

I enjoyed being on my own bike well enough...but I simply adore passenging on the back of Bret's bike. It's 92% of the fun with only 25% of the stress.

Fun sustains an 8% reduction because Bret's helmet is a significant part of my field of view. And Stress earns a 25% rating because other drivers are unpredictable and don't always see motorcycles, so even though I'm not driving I still worry about our safety.

On Sunday, Bret's parents babysat Gabe and Bret and I went on a motorcycle ride around Seattle. It was a beautiful day and so much fun!

First we went to Alki.

Hmm. Random chunk of my hair stuck on Bret's glasses.


Seattle from Alki. Gorgeous day!

Then I convinced Bret to let me have his camera while we were driving. He recently got a camera for $25 off of Craig's list because I'm just a little territorial about our nice camera and the perils it's allowed to attempt.

And then I spent the next 15 minutes of the ride playing with it and figuring out the settings.

How annoying is it that Bret looks so darn cool in his helmet and sunglasses and I just look ridiculous? Seriously - the Halverson cheeks don't do me any favors in a motorcycle helmet.

I thought I might look better with the glasses off...

But I was wrong. And smiling was a really bad idea. Ah well.


Then I decided to be artsy. This is me in the back of Bret's helmet.

Snazzy. And me in the rearview mirror.

Are you impressed with my wry, insouciant artistic statement?

And then I saw this building with a funky exterior design.

And you know what Bret was doing this whole time? Poor guy was dealing with stop and go traffic along Alki. I love passenging!

From Alki we went across the West Seattle Bridge and then north on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. This is Mount Rainier from the bridge.

And Qwest Field from the Viaduct.

Then we exited on Seneca in downtown Seattle. This is the Chase (formerly WaMu) building. Both Bret and I think this is the prettiest of the skyscrapers in Seattle.

This is the Hammering Man art piece in front of the Seattle Art Museum.

After downtown, we went across the Magnolia bridge. This is Seattle from the bridge.

And from a park in Magnolia.

Rainier from the park.

And that's Alki to the right behind us.

Then we drove around Magnolia for a bit and past Discovery Park, and then down into Wallingford. This next picture is for Laura.

It's a hair salon named Tousle. I hate the word tousle. I want it to be pronounced "tussle", but it just won't cooperate. It insists on being pronounced "tou-zuhl" and Laura is the person who told me the correct pronunciation and she had to look it up and prove it to me because I refused to agree. Now whenever she finds an opportunity to use the word, she looks at me with a smirk while she pronounces it correctly. And I proclaim my annoyance every time.

Then we drove through the U-District. This is the old Safeco building...now part of the UW.

Meanwhile, back at Memo and Papa T's, Gabriel was fervently missing us.

Clearly.

Bret used to work at a sandwich shop next to the Avis Car Rental on 5th Avenue. The Avis sign is the itty bitty "IS" behind the Park sign. I was pretty proud of myself for getting any part of the sign...Bret's new-used camera likes to wait about a second and a half after you push the button to take the picture. Makes things interesting.

This is the Chase building from the North. The previous picture was from the West.

And the Smith Tower...amazing that it used to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It's so tiny in the picture above compared to the other buildings!

This is a parking garage that they call The Sinking Ship. Or something like that. I should've paid more attention on the Seattle Underground tour. You can't see it as well from this angle, but it looks like the bow of a ship coming out of the road above it (which is to the right of the frame).

Then we drove past Pioneer Square.

And Starbucks' Corporate Headquarters. Oh Starbucks...you sucked me in to a latte habit and I hate you but I like you too. Dagnabbit.

Just as we were getting gas I noticed that the battery light on the camera was flashing at me. So I snapped this one and then put the camera away until...

...Gabriel! I missed you!!

Sorry mom. I'm a little busy chewing on my fingers right now and I don't have time to look at you.

Harrumph.

Then Bret's folks took us out to Salty's on Alki for dinner. Nice!

Such a fun date day and so nice to be out enjoying the beautiful weather!