Just inside the (Main) Gate. The American flag doesn't seem near as big in the picture as when you're driving by it. Compare it's size to the standard-sized "POW" flag that's flight below it.

Another shot of the American flag. In this picture, you can compare the flag's size to the aircraft.

We had EXCELLENT accommodations, at the MacDill Inn, in their Visiting Officer Quarters. We had a 2-room suite that had this bedroom, and a sitting room that had our private bathroom in between the two rooms. Very comfortable quarters and excellent staff. If you ever have the opportunity, stop in and say hi!

The black strip is an asphalt joggig trail that runs around the base. Pretty scenic if you're out for a run. Tampa's downtown highrises can be seen a bit to the left.

A few rainbow shots right after the brief shower.

What we believe was probably the original officer housing, still being used probably for over-flow. Pretty amazing the differnce between this and the NEW officer housing!

This picture shows what we assume is the original-style senior officer housing.

This is the (back-side) of the new officer housing on base. Their backs look across this nicely-landscaped green area, then across the perimeter road and onto Tampa Bay.

More officer housing, with major differences in style between the two-story and the one-story models. Again, this is showing you the BACK of the houses.

This is the front of those officer houses and these are one family only. What person wouldn't want to live on base if they could live in this new housing, rent-free??

Backs of the one-story officer housing.

The back of the largest & fanciest one-story that faced the perimeter road. (I have a picture showing the front of it later on.) We're thinking this is probably SENIOR officer housing.

The front of that largest SENIOR single-story housing, with a detached 3-car garage. The next photo shows a close-up of the front entrance.

The back side of the older enlisted housing. Each has a LARGE, screened-in back porch plus patio. On the Navy bases that Dave and I were stationed at years ago, a building this size had FOUR units instead of just two!

The newer enlisted housing.

A closer view of one of the duplex's. Although I'd hate to have to climb those stairs everytime I got home, I'm sure they made it specifically because of hurricanes. Each of the two units making up one building has carport parking for 2 vehicles and garage-parking for one vehicle.

The front side of the new enlisted housing shown in previous photo. (These are duplexes, with two family units in each building.

The Clubhouse for the (THREE) golf courses on base. Dave and I had really nice breakfast here two mornings during our stay.

There are two other black walls besides the one in front, all honoring Special Operations Forces casualties.

A nice park located between the enlisted and officer housing areas. Very nice area to spend time at with the whole family.

I really liked the beauty of this building during twilight time as we came across it during our meandering drive around the base.

Dave and I drove to the West tip of MacDill AFB to the base RV park/marina/beach area to watch the sunset. We had such a relaxing time and felt we had the place almost all to ourselves.

You can't see it in the picture, but this was a flock of PINK Flamingo's flying above us. I've never seen them except in zoos before so to see them in real life was super cool for me!

Something scared them and about 1/2 of the flock standing at the water's edge suddenly took flight. as we continued sitting on a nearby picnic table and watched them).

The Manatee sign was near this dock/pier by the marina that was adjacent the beach. Dave and I walked out to the end of it, in hopes I (we) would get to see a Manatee or two. No luck... ;(

We met this beautiful English Spaniel, named Chelsea, in the parking lot as we headed to our car in the marina/beach parking area.

I liked the way they displayed the American flag and various branches of service flags, so made Dave drive around a (HUGE) block, just so I could snag a picture of them. (Thanks, Dave!)

This is the base's Main Fitness Center. Four years ago when our family was on vacation and took a day-trip to MacDill AFB, we got a tour of it. It is the largest military fitness center Dave or I have EVER seen before!!! If you'd like to see what it's like inside, check out my sub-gallery (under "Vacations") of: http://www.pbase.com/lbogan/orlandojuly_2007. We simply showed up so the boys could use some of the amenities in it, were totally blown away on the hugeness & unusual inside architecture, and one of the front desk staff took it upon himself to offer us a complete guided tour thru it.

That concludes my photos taken on MacDill AFB. Now for ones of Tampa area and then other cities. This was two buildings near downtown Tampa during twilight hours.

The pictures of houses that follow this photo are across the street from this bay in Tampa with a view of it. So MANY beautiful homes and I only took pictures of a handful!!

This building (on a corner) caught my eye during our trip 3 years ago and I got a picture of it back then, too. However, during this trip we turned that corner and then I saw WHY those front steps are so HUGE! Check it out in the next photo!

We drove down many tree-canopied streets and each time I wanted to take a picture. I held back, taking pictures of only 4 and then deleting 1/2 to leave you with just 2 to look thru.

I loved seeing the moss-draped huge trees.

An old sailing vessel near downtown Tampa.

When you have two teenage sons who aren't with you on vacation and you come across a CORVETTE dealership, you just HAVE to make a block so you can get pictures of them. So Chris & Alex, these two photos are for you!

We took most of a day and just headed towards the beach and then after walking along the beach for probably 3/4's to a mile, we headed south, driving thru several of the coastal cities. Between Tampa and Redington Beach we saw this along dog racing track adjacent to our highway.

We parked in a public parking lot in Redington Beach with beachfront access. This was my first view of the ocean during this trip.

I expected the beaches to be packed with beach-goer's, especially in Summer when school's out and many people are either on vacation or Mom's just wanted to take advantage of their kids being home during daytime and take them to the beach. I was pretty surprised to get to this beach and see so FEW people!

I know in recent years, many (probably most) highrises offer some type of window protection against hurricanes. With this being the heart of summer, I was surprised that the highrise to the left had so MANY units obviously NOT being occupied. Wow, who would have thought it??? I guess for those few units that ARE occupied, the occupants probably feel like they're just about the only ones in that huge building!

I noticed that these two long rows of condo's weren't perpendicular to the beach as the others were, but were built at an angle. Pretty smart because EVERY occupant could go out on it's balcony and actually SEE the beach!

An abandoned sand castle that we came across that someone obviously spent extra attention in the decorating of. ;)

Someone was correct when they named this pier.

Some smart kids who found a place to play where the breeze is cooler and no risk of sunburn! The heat & humidity were very high the day we were out & about (actually, EVERY day of our trip)!

We were headed specifically to a National Park where Fort De Soto is located on it. Before we found the actual fort, we saw a parking area with this nice pier behind it, so stopped to go check it out.

As we were walking by this guy, I asked him how his fishing was going? He replied he hadn't had any luck. Within 10 seconds of his replying, he caught this Mackeral. Was it me that brought him (better) luck???

When I downloaded all my trip's pictures on my computer and saw them in large-size, I first thought I'd taken this shot of the man for some reason. After looking at it a few seconds, I realized it wasn't him that caught my attention that day, but the seagulls perched on top of the pier's posts! Again, another picture I took to try and capture the "birds" in it.

As we were driving out of the parking lot, I asked Dave to stop so I could get a picture of this very-nice, (BIG) dog park. There are actually 2 separately-fenced in areas, each with park benches & fake fire hydrants), where you can go in with your dog, let them off their leash to run, play & socialize with other 4-footed canines.

We drove only about a 1/4 mile from our previous location, parked and walked around Fort De Soto National Park. It was also free to park, see and explore.

Dave standing at the look-out area above the ammunitions storage part.

Stairs to take you up to the overlook that Dave had been at in the previous picture.

Next place we drove around after leaving Fort De Soto was St. Petersburg.

We parked near where I was standing to take this photo, walked up to the pier's road, waited briefly in the sheltered bus stop, and then caught the free trolley ride down that long pier to the building at the far end.

The bottom floor is where I took the next handful of photos. The highest level with windows (on the right side) is where we enjoyed a great meal.

This photo advertisement was attached to the bus stop adjacent to our parking lot. I took this photo because the young boy in the top picture could be a slightly-older version of our grandson, Ryan. (By the way, the streetcar trolly came up & down the pier, giving free rides to people, which we opted to use because of the high heat that afternoon.)

Can we say HUGE aquariums??? Located on the first floor of "The Pier".

View from our table in the very nice restaurant on the 4th floor of "The Pier", called "The Columbia". The food & service were both excellent and we enjoyed a wonderful mid-afternoon meal.

I believe this is a Rubber tree; at least we saw trees similar in style to this about 18 years ago in Hawaii.

An unusual structure/sculpture(?)

A large ampitheater we saw along I-4 somewhere along our route from Tampa to Orlando to fly home.

Closer view of the back side of the seating area.