On to Bay City!

Hello!

Happy Friday!  Our plan for today was to pick up our friend Sandy and head north to Sanilac Petroglyph State Historic Park, and then on to Bay City.  So … up around 7, and ready to go about 9:30 am.  Over to St. Clair Shores to pick up Sandy.  From there, it was mostly surface streets (Van Dyke) and up into the middle of Michigan’s “thumb”. 

Standing man

Handprints

Man with bow and arrow

Person holding child

We got to the Park about 12:30 pm.  To be honest, the entrance to the park is so small that we actually drove past it and had to turn around.  Both Sandy and I were thinking of State Parks we have visited in Michigan over the years – usually long entrance ways with a ranger station in the middle of the road, collecting fees and handing out information.  This was not like that at all!  Rather, a small sign that led into a parking area.  There was a big tour bus there, of course running its motor, but we never saw the sign of any people in a large group!  Very odd! 

Eagle man

Turtle

Family tree

Master board of the entire petroglyph stone

We followed the walking trail and came first to several informational signs, and then finally to a covered wooden structure with a very tall fence all around it – the petroglyphs!  These apparently are the only known petroglyphs in the lower peninsula of Michigan and they were unknown until 1881 when a large forest fire burned through the area and cleared the brush covering the site – a large slab of sandstone.  After that time, and until the park was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and a wooden pavilion erected in the mid-1990’s, the theft of petroglyphs (literally dug right out of the rock) and graffiti was a real problem. 

We were fortunate to find a park ranger there who had a laser pointer, which she used to outline some of the more important petroglyphs remaining.  It was interesting to hear some of the various theories and indian legends about what some of the figures were – the water panther, for instance, or the figure of an archer with a bow and arrow – all carved over a period from about 1000 to 300 years ago.  We were able to get a good look around the entire rock surface; very impressive, and we highly recommend!

From Sanilac, we headed north to, believe it or not, Bad Axe.  (Can you imagine how Robert pronounced it?)  Found a very nice place called Rachel’s for lunch.  R and Sandy both had salads – steak salad for R and chicken salad for Sandy.  I, on the other hand, had a lovely bacon cheeseburger, perfectly cooked for once!  Back on the road about 2 pm and now heading for Bay City.

You know, in going up north as a child, we went through Bay City many, many times, across the Zilwaukee (no, this is not a typo!) Bridge, but this is the first time R and I had ever stopped there.  Sandy had a friend who lived there briefly, so she was more familiar with the area than either of us, and had talked about some of the old houses.  Well…across the “Thumb” to the Saginaw river, and into town.  We are staying at a stunning DoubleTree Hotel right on the river, and we have a beautiful suite on the corner with a balcony!! 

Bedroom looking out toward balcony

Sandy and M on balcony

View from balcony over Saginaw river and River Walk

We are on the 5^th floor (of 6) and are located at the end of a long corridor.  We have big picture floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides of our suite, and it is really beautiful!  You walk into a large foyer, with the huge bathroom on the right.  Then enter the living room, which is beautifully decorated and spacious, with a chaise lounge, new couch, big coffee table, as well as TV and console and work desk (from whence I type!)  Through this to the bedroom, which has the balcony door.  Really, really attractive; we will definitely do this again!

Living Room

Another shot of the bedroom!

About 5:30 pm we headed out to Old City Hall (it really was the old city hall!) for dinner.  Sat in the window on the street, and had a very good meal.  Sandy had gnocchi, R had lake perch and potatoes, and I had chicken with artichokes, mushrooms and green beans.  All in all, we were all happy with our choices! 

Old City Hall restaurant

Creamy tomato soup

R's perch dinner

We had read about the State Theatre – a classic 1930’s movie house -  and wanted to take a look – also possibly go to the movies!  But when we walked around the block, it was closed!  As was just about everything else downtown!  Wow!  Very surprising!  So, we walked a bit more, and decided that we’d need to come back in the morning, when things open up around 10 am.  Back to the car, and then we took a driving tour of Center Street, the main street through town, which is filled with some really wonderful houses.  Some are in need of repair, but many are real beauties! 

As R was driving, I had to take the photos, which may explain why so many of them are crooked … not easy when the driver won’t even slow down!  [As we were on a main thoroughfare with traffic, the “driver” couldn’t slow down.  Signed: The Driver] An amazing city!

My chicken with artichokes and mushrooms

Sandy's gnocchi

Beautiful redone State Theatre

Back to the hotel and a short walk along the River Walk.  There were people on the streets setting up for some sort of fair tomorrow, and it looks very much like there will be all sorts of things going on and people milling about tomorrow!  I’m thinking we will head out about 10 to look at some of the shops (of course, the fact that the cupcake store opens then has absolutely nothing to do with it!) and then start heading back south.  We don’t need to check out until noon.  Not sure exactly what we’ll be doing tomorrow, but figure that we will give downtown Detroit a look!

More later!

Lots of love,

m

xxx