On our first full day here we went into Bay City, the closest city to the Finn Road Campground in Essexville where we’re staying. It has a population of about 35,000 people. The Saginaw River flows through the middle of the city; 4 drawbridge make it possible to travel around the city. Our first stop was the Bay County Riverwalk trail for a bike ride.

It was a perfect weather day, sunny and in the 70’s. The Trail is an 18-mile loop through woodlands and marshes, a couple of city parks, neighborhoods and Bay City center. We didn’t do the full 18 miles, but the section we covered was varied and lovely. We biked along marshes, home to a variety of water birds. We saw lots of cranes and egrets and a whole range of ducks and geese. (Unfortunately I left my phone in the car and didn’t get any pictures. ) We saw one of the drawbridges open for a passing sailboat. We could see the Bay City skyline. Bay City has an amphitheater called theWorld Friendship Shell that opened in 2020. They were getting ready for a weekend musical festival and we got to hear their sound check.

Back at the car we had our lunch at a nearby picnic table before heading into town. We took a stroll through the downtown area. A couple of blocks are closed to traffic and all of the restaurants have outdoor patios set up. The place was busy with lots of diners. We drove through some of the Bay City neighborhoods, including the historic district along Center Avenue with beautiful old houses built by the Bay City ship builders, lumbermen and industrialists who made their fortunes in the mid 1800s.

It was time to think about dinner so we headed back to downtown and decided on a restaurant called the ‘MI Table’. We had to wait an hour for an outside table, but that gave us the chance to sit on a bench and people watch. The MI Table serves ‘Michigan cuisine’,  highlighting Michigan produce, fish and game.  I briefly considered trying the Elk meatballs, but decided on BBQ cauliflower instead and I skipped the Venison Stir Fry and settled on Chicken Pot Pie. Michael had a Fresh White Fish sandwich, not to be confused with the typical Jewish whitefish salad. And I’m not sure how it fits with Michigan cuisine, but they had a selection of bubble teas. The Strawberry Coconut Bubble Tea was very yummy.