This is my first post for #marketfriday hosted by @dswigle and I am pretty excited about it.

I have seen @tattoodjay post using this tag quite frequently, but I have never been able to do it until now.

We have a couple of farmers market in some of the towns near me, but this was the first Summer that I wasn't able to make it to any of them. Unfortunate because this was also my first Summer on Steemit.

About a year or so ago this new market opened up in a city that is about 15 minutes down the road from us. It is an indoor space boasting a variety of shops and eateries. @mrsbozz had been wanting to visit for some time, but we had just never gotting around to driving over there.

Thanksgiving weekend I decided I would surprise her and take her to City Market. We were going to go on Saturday but since the Saturday after Thanksgiving is now designated as "Small Business Saturday" we thought the market might be a little crazy.

Instead we drove over on Black Friday and found that they were not that busy at all. The market itself isn't that big consisting of a single center aisle and then two more aisles on each side. The picture above shows the entrance to the right with some baskets next to the door.

The baskets are pretty cool because they have a telescoping handle and wheels. They can either be carried like a traditional basket, or wheeled along the floor like a cart.

The booth to the left is called the Harvest Store, you can also see straight ahead in the picture is a coffee shop.

It didn't take us long to walk through the whole place and we soon found ourselves back at the front and hungry from some food. There is a local pizza place that has a storefront in the market, so we grabbed a couple of slices and went to eat them.

We started walking towards the back and found this small seating area with a couple of tables. Upon looking at the map now I realize they designate this dining area as a "Teen area" to hangout, but since we didn't see many teens out and about I think it is okay that we sat there.

We enjoyed our pizza in this "Lunch box" area and I snapped some shots of the decor as I was shoveling my face full of two slices of the Hawaiian specialty pizza.

You can see they have mounted a variety of old lunchboxes to the wall to go with the theme. At the back of the market is another dining area that is apparently more for adults.

There was a small group of people milling about in that area as we walked by. One man was strumming on a guitar at one of the tables and another man was getting setup to play some songs on an elctronic keyboard. I get the feeling these open mic type things happen frequently here.

It was actually an armed forces veteran that was playing the keyboard, so it makes sense that his sign says "USA Music" when I look back at the photo now :)

The guy with the guitar was gone by the time I took this picture but there were several people here enjoying their lunch.

My wife and I took one more stroll around the market before we left so I could get some more pictures for this post. It was actually her that reminded me to make sure I was taking pictures. I am not quite sure what I would do without her!

The market has a website and I linked to it at the beginning of this post. If you want a full rundown of all the vendors you can check that out. They even have a map that shows you where to go if you are looking for a specific one.

The picture above is of the smoothie and frozen yogurt place that is inside.

I took this while I was standing at the counter waiting to pay for our pizza. This is actually still "The Harvest Store" that I posted a shot of before, but in the background you can see "The Pantry" and "That Guy's Meats".

It is pretty cool because they actually have a small butcher shop with a freezer and meat counter right inside the market. In fact on the other side of the market is a place called "That Guy's BBQ" where they prepare the meat and you guy buy it for lunch, dinner, a snack, or to eat on the go.

At the back of the market next to the "adult" dining area is a Mexican resaurant that I am surprised @mrsbozz didn't insist we try for lunch. Instead she left it up to me and knowing we were probalby going to have Mexican for lunch the next day I picked pizza.

If we ever came back here, it would be a hard choice for me between the Mexican place and the BBQ place. I would probably skip the pizza place (even though it was very good).

This place was called "Bee Leaf Teas" and all they do is sell different flavors and kinds of teas. Personally, I prefer Green Tea and Black Tea, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying some of their flavors someday.

I took this picture standing back by dining area and looking towards the front doors. You can see that they had started to get a little busier by now. To our left was a small bakery and to the right is a place that sells fresh herbs.

I am pretty sure this picture is of "The Harvest Store" again. I apologize for so many pictures of it, but it was right at the front, so I just happened to get a lot of it. I think it is interesting to point out though that this particular booth takes the "Bridge Card".

The Bridge Card is Michigan's itteration of food stamps. I think it is cool to see a place like this accepting that as a payment. Many times Bridge Cards are used to cover things that aren't as healthy for you. Processed/packaged dinners and things of that sort. It is refreshing to see a place that sells fresh and wholesome foods participating in the program.

That was our visit to the City Market. @mrsbozz and I had a similar take on the place as a whole: We thought it was a really neat place, and we are glad we visited. We noticed that many of the booths were simply selling goods that we could get elsewhere. Besides a handful of booths, there wasn't anything unique about them.

If we lived in one of the condos on the river which are just a couple blocks down the road from the market, we could probably see ourselves walking down here more frequently. Unless we were going for one of the restaurants specifically, we probably wouldn't take the time to drive all the way back for another visit.

Unless we were getting some more of these that is:

Right next to the pizza place is a bakery called Heidi's Darn Good Coookies and I can attest the name doesn't come close to how fantastic they were.

My sweet tooth guided me right to this place and before I knew it, we were taking advantage of the special they had: a dozen cookies for $15. That may seem pretty pricey, but they were totally worth it.

We pretty much got one of each, but my favorite so far have been the frosted sugar cookie and the frosted snikerdoodles. The buttercream they use to top them is so rich, I felt like I was going to pass out from the sugar high.

You can see we split some of them in half because quite honestly eating a whole cookie in one sitting is just too much. We used our Foodsaver to vacuum seal the other cookies so we could freeze them to enjoy sometime in the future.

If you find yourself across the river in downtown Bay City, MI and you are looking for a place with some cool shops and some great food, check out The City Market!

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