Winter In Rota: Dog Days, Long Walks & Carnaval

Winter in Rota has been a mild one! With temperatures averaging in the 60s, it's been nice to enjoy beach walks in a sweatshirt while catching up with each other in the evenings!

Monday, January 22

Bryan also enjoyed a lovely Monday morning golfing on base with RJ, the former NCSU football player, and Bhavin, the oral surgeon at the hospital (and another fellow NCSU alumnus.) After an enjoyable afternoon on the course, he came home grinning big and wanting to up his golf game!

Los Corrales de Rota

Speaking of enjoyable afternoons walking on the beach, Bryan and I braved the ancient Roman fishing remains just down the beach from our house! These Roman Ruins still remain from the second century AD and were originally used by Roman fishermen. The walls are underwater at high tide, and as the tide recedes, fish get trapped. The fisherman would then dredge the different walled areas for their daily catch!

While these walls don't fully work any longer, we can walk along the remaining walls at low tide! It's pretty crazy how we have true Roman ruins just a 10-minute walk from our house!

Hugo has also apparently learned to tell time. At 4:15 pm every work day, this boy comes and reminds me that Dad should be coming home soon and that we need to head outside to greet him! Hugo is the funniest pup, but he has gotten good at knowing when it's time to welcome Dad home after a long day at work!

Things here at the Johnson house have been pretty tame this winter! Between our trips to Rome with my parents, the Czech Republic, and Nuremberg, Germany at the end of January, we have enjoyed afternoons on our roof sunbathing with the pups! On warmer days, we have even lucked out with hanging our clothes on the line to dry (a true Spanish tradition/ Prairie-living experience!)

And don't worry, Hugo and Reynolds have enjoyed plenty of cuddles on the colder days these last two months!

We even had a visitor to our house- a black and white "Reynolds cat," who we have never seen before. This kitty decided to make herself at home on the top of our wall and antagonize our girl. So much for an enjoyable evening of grilling; instead, we had Reynolds constantly reminding us of the trespasser!

Then, on February 23, we took Hugo and Reynolds to visit an old friend at her house! I'm not sure our pups recognized Miss Bella, whom they met a few months back as a 3-month-old puppy at our house, but this time around Bella was ready to play! Hugo and Reynolds were in doggy heaven with a new friend to chase, a giant yard to run around in, and a pool to avoid falling into! Bryan and I enjoyed catching up with RJ & Aidan while the pups enjoyed their evening of fun!

Being the true dog-obsessed parents that we are, of course I caught a few of these stories on camera! Here's Reynolds guarding our house from the evil "Reynolds Cat," and the discovery of a doggy drone that Bella's parents own! To say Reynolds wants a Doggy Drone of her own is a severe understatement!

Cuadros Pacheco

You may remember, Bryan and I enjoy collecting watercolor paintings in the cities we visit. Since our Prague and Rome trips, we have added quite a few new pieces to our collection, so we needed to get them matted and framed!

We walked to our favorite frame shop, Cuadros Pacheco, to have our works ready for our wall! One week later, we picked up our pieces and were again amazed at the hand-built frames and professional matting! I mean, just look at the last few pictures to see our growing colorful collection! We LOVE it!

Saturday, February 10: Rota Carnaval

After hearing a lot of hype about Andalucia's Carnaval events, Bryan and I didn't want to miss out on the fun, so we reached out to RJ to join us for an evening of festivities in downtown Rota! While Aidan was TDY in the States, RJ was ready for whatever- and our fun evening didn't disappoint!

Carnaval is like a giant street party, where people dress up in Halloween costumes and enjoy parades, food tastings, and plenty of drinks! A lot of restaurants set up booths outside on the street and sell discounted drinks and cheap snacks, while those in costume sing, dance, and storm down the streets for entertainment!

We ended the night in a local pub, where Bryan and RJ enjoyed making new friends around a dart board!

As we come to the end of February, we are eager for warmer weather!

Bring on Spring!

--Katie