Bay City Michigan

One of my favorite places in America is Bay City, Michigan. I stay there often when I visit my friends and fellow martial arts instructors, musicians, and artists. Madonna is from Bay City and her grandmother still resides in town. One of my friends attends her church and I have visited their services and enjoyed them.

From the Riverwalk board walk and its American Bald Eagles, herons,cranes, ducks, geese, gulls, swans, and other friendly birds and people, to the Christmas Show at the local Planetarium downtown, to Mama Lupo's delicious homemade ice cream on Henry Street, to the antique shops and cafes on the riverfront of the Saginaw River, Bay City is great! The 4th of July Parade is a wonderful event, as are parades on Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

The city bus has no regular bus stops and you can stand anywhere along the routes to be picked up as a passenger. The drivers are alert and never miss a passenger. If yyou have a physical challenge, they will come right to your door.

Many streets are named with Native Americans in mind, especially Tittabawassee, which mutated into Ittibittywassee Road in the Cat Who Mysteries from Lilian Jackson Braun. She is an author of over 60 years that combined counties in the thumb of Michigan with others of Bay County and the northwest counties to create her own "Moose County", Michigan, "400 miles north of everywhere." IN enjoy her thrist three novels written itn eh late 18960s best, followed by The Cat Who Moved a Mountain. Lilian is a former Detroit Free Press editor that wrote sports poems (spoems) at the age of 17 well enough to get herself hired. Her "cozy" style mysteries include a composite of reporters she has known in James MackIntosh Qwilleran, and two Siamese Detectives - Koko and Yum Yum. They're cats.

The real Tittabawassee Road runs from Bay City to Saginaw, right into a Barnes and Noble Book Store open late with Internet Access and a Cafe. Good times!

Just up the road to the West is a State Park on the lake and a further series of beaches all along Lake Huron for miles. We've met many fiendly down-to-earth people there on the beaches just outside Bay City.

Farther up along the road is a wonderful cheese factory with discount prices and again - friendly people!

Archeologists agree that early Native American nation lived along the coastline in the marshes of the Saginaw Bay as early as 3,000 BC. These nations enjoyed good hunting and fishing in the wetlands of Lake Huron, "The Sweet Sea."

By 1857, Bay City had grown up out of settlesments along the Sagnaw River. The river was too shallow for good shipping currents in Saginaw (the first white settlement in Michigan), so people moved to "Lower Sagniaw", which became Bay City about 10 miles away. The city becaome a boomtown for milling and logging industries and fortunes were made, evidenced in the mansions downtown across the river to the east.

In 1905, the city was recognized on both sides of the Saginaw River cutting through its middle to form sites of two current parks: Wenonah and Veterans memorial, including the famous Bay City Riverwalk.

Trivia: The 1980s group The Bay City Rollers chose their name by pinning a dart thrown onto Bay City, Michigan.