Vacation July 2011--Day 4 continued

Because Day 4 was a long post with pics, I decided to go ahead and make a second post about our experience once we got to MacDill AFB, Tampa.  We get there and the guys are all thinking we are important bc we flew in on a Gulf Stream 5--when they see how young we are they realize we just got lucky to fly in luxury, but nevertheless, they were so very helpful!  So they get us into the terminal and help us settle out what we need to do and where we need to go.  We call billeting and for some reason they are booked until August something--which can't be the case, so again I will be talking to Air Force Inns soon--remember my Tony story?! :)  Ok so then the guys get us connected to Enterprise Rent a Car because they are on base.  Well they are sold out.  Crap!  We ask if Enterprise can shuttle us to another location and the guy said no.  Come to find out they do shuttle--another story for another day.  So Dustin calls a Taxi and the guy gets him to the rental place with no problems.  In fact the car rental was very cheap and God was looking out for us because we did get the last mid-sized car available--shoot the only car left in that lot as well!  So Dustin comes back and picks up Dietrich and me.  While Dustin was gone I let Dietrich roam the terminal and I searched for hotels to stay at.  Because we chose to travel in an impromptu style during a high vacation rate many of the hotels were booked up.  We then just decided to get in the car and drive to St. Petersburg.  All of us were hungry and wanted some place to unwind and relax.  We parked on the street facing all the marinas and walked until we found a nice British restaurant.  We walk in there, Dietrich gets a hot dog and apple sauce, Dustin gets fish and chips, and I get Indian Tikah Masala.  Yeah I know, Indian at a British place, but it was good and comforting food.  We all got filled up and decided to start driving toward St. Pete Beach and find a hotel there.  All of them seemed to be sold out.  So on our way back to St. Petersburg I finally get a hold of a Mariott that is cheap and available!  We check in there, relax, get Dietrich to bed, and Dustin and I just finally fall out asleep because of the long travel/stressful day.