Ronda and the Great Baboo Crisis

With schools closed and classes cancelled for a local holiday that no one could seem to explain to me, we decided to head over to Ronda to meet up with friends. Like traveling pros, we packed up and headed out in under an hour.
When we arrived in Ronda John left to meet his friend while Zoe and I went to explore a bit. Ronda is a beautiful city located high up on a cliff with amazing views of the mountains and valley below. Zoe quickly fell asleep in the stroller and it started to rain so I stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant. Halfway through my glass of wine the food arrived and Zoe woke up. It was then that I noticed that her special lovey "Baboo" the bunny was gone. I panicked and quickly asked for the check. Since apparently I chose the only restaurant in the world that does not have any boxes for leftovers my food was left behind totally untouched while I ran around in the rain searching for our VIR (very important  rabbit). Having retraced my steps twice we finally headed back to the hotel and I attempted to soothe Zoe about Baboo with cookies and tv. When John came home I set out again on my own as a last ditch effort before giving up. I must have looked like a crazy person wandering around in the rain totally soaked asking everyone I passed if they had seen a stuffed rabbit. Naturally, right before I was about to turn around and head home I saw him tucked away in a corner out of the rain. Needless to say, we all felt very relieved to have him home. I suppose loss is a lesson that every person has to learn at some point in life but I'm glad we managed to avoid that particular lesson for Zoe.... for now at least.
We were happy to have Baboo back with us the weather was miserable the next day so instead of visiting Gibraltar we headed home early and visited the spa by our house. While we had a bit of a rough start, in the end the weekend was a success after all. 

Git er done!

We made some more checks on our "settling in" checklist which included getting our internet connected, finding a daycare for Zoe and registering our visas. We also have been continuing to explore the city and even made some short day trips.
When trying to accomplish anything here in Spain both patience and a good sense of humor are helpful to have. When we went to sign up for internet access we were told that someone would come to install it sometime between the following day and three weeks later.  When someone did arrive to set it up a week later we were told that he needed access to the electrical room on the first floor of our building. We went to ask our landlord if she had the key to this room and she said that she didn't but she thought the person in 2A or 2B did. This set off a chain of events that ended up with me and the cable guy standing in the hallway with four of our neighbors discussing who may have the key. Finally someone volunteered to try her keys even though she was pretty sure they wouldn't work. In the end though they did and we are fully connected and John can now watch House of Cards on Netflix so crisis averted.
Zoe is also settling in nicely to her daycare which is located on the bottom floor of our building. She was excited at first but then a bit overwhelmed. This week has been better though with no tears. Her teacher Isabella is so sweet and has been very patient with us so far.
With Zoe in daycare John and I took advantage of the kid free time to finally go and register our visas which I have to say, was the easiest task so far here in Spain.
Last weekend we went to visit one of the mountain towns about two hours away called Alhama de Granada. Even with bonine my stomach was doing somersaults the whole way up the twisty road to the town. It was all worthwhile though, the view of the valley there was beautiful.  We found a fantastic restaurant with a beautiful patio and by some miracle of God Zoe was quiet and well behaved through the whole meal. It was a great day.
This weekend we went to Nerja which is a small town only about 20 minutes away. While it is super touristy, the view from the "Balcon de Europa" has a great view of the ocean and John was excited to find a Mexican restaurant which, while overpriced, actually had some pretty good food. I think Mexican food here is kind of fancy and exotic. Please don't judge us for eating Mexican food....we are currently going through withdrawals from "El Camion" in Ballard.
This week we are searching for a family doctor and starting language school so that we can perfect our thpanish lithsp. I am getting better already.