Chimp Haven and other weekend events

Friday night, Mason and I had a really date night. We haven't gone out, just the two of us for dinner in awhile, so we decided to try a new Vietnamese place in Shreveport called Dahn's Garden. We were really excited to go, since it is the closest place to have Thai food in Louisiana. The food was okay. We decided that we'd probably go back, but the fried rice and Pad Thai was not up to standard. It's tough to judge since we've found a really good Chinese restaurant, and so the lack of flavor was disappointing. That said, I'm going to try a new Thai recipe this week; one I keep chickening out on making because I don't have/can't find any curry paste in this town, or the ingredients to make it. I did pick up some curry powder from an Asian market in town, so I'll try playing with that to see if I can make it into a paste.

After dinner we did end up meeting up at the Boardwalk with our friends Phil and Nicole and Nicole's brother and sister-in-law...they were going to Coldstone, so how could we turn that down. It was a nice night for a walk along the river and then we checked out the gators at Outdoor World. We were on the way to Phil and Nicole's afterwards (they live 4 houses away from us) when we noticed a large plane on the runway on base. Mason suspected that it was Air Force One, so we of course quickly ran home to get the camera and then go get as close as possible in case we saw the president. We later found out that it wasn't Air Force One, but a Boeing E-4 Advance Airborne Command Post, aka Nightwatch. It's used by the Air Force as a "survival mobile" for command in the case of a nuclear attack. We suspected it was here because of some "real-world" exercises they are doing here at base this week. This base gets cooler and cooler- the other day on the way home from work some F16s, A10s and a B52 were all flying less than 200 feet over the car as they were coming in to land- Air Force land is awesome!

Saturday morning, Mason and I ventured out with our friends Josh and Andrea, and their son Gavin to the Chimp Haven. There is a Chimp Haven about 40 minutes from base. The haven is used for study and to raise the chimps, so it's only open from 9-12 on Saturday a month. We left early to avoid the heat, but I'm not sure that's possible in the South. I had a really good time. I like chimps. The haven was completely (mainly) natural, and situated in a heavily forested area. There were two large habitats separated by a large wall, and not too much distance from the chimps and the people. we got there as a habitat was being "released" and at once about a dozen chimps came from the back of the forest right up from to the steams edge. It was funny to see chimps with a banana or two, and an orange or two in mouth or hand charging towards huge hunks of watermelon, grabbing at it to add to their collection. It was a really nice day. Our picture was even in the Shreveport Times. Our friends had a few more feature pictures, who can compete with a cute two year old, but nonetheless still exciting.

Shreveport Times Picture (we're in 16/29):
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=D9&Dato=20090620&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=906200802&Ref=PH

In other news, Mason just got his first big research paper back for his master's class and he got a 99%- woohoo Mason! He has a test everyday this week, including the larger mid-phase test and a checklist evaluation in the cockpit trainer. So, busy studying...I'm working everyday, and keeping busy, applying at schools and hoping to hear something. We just decided that we are going to Tennessee for the 4th of July weekend. We toyed with going camping/white water rafting in Arkansas, but with the heat and low water levels we decided that might be better around Labor Day. Mason's Grandma Kehs lives there (we've never met) and his dad will be there so we thought it would be a fun trip and we could go to the mountains! Hopefully the AF will approve the leave request so we can start planning more details.

Latest dish from the kitchen of Ellen was Penne Alla-Not-Ka...I loved it! Mason, not so much...unfortunatly...but there's lots of leftovers which I froze and will get to enjoy over the next month.

Chimp Haven and Other Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030362&id=77800450&l=7544b24d52