Special Moments in Time

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JULY/AUGUST 2007)

ANNIVERSARY: If you’re with The One, just riding an elevator to the 12th floor can exude romance. So can sharing a hot dog on a downtown street, or sitting in traffic at a red light. But as the years go by, a romantic setting doesn’t hurt in rekindling that old feeling. A remote, serene locale with honeyed sunsets, intimate dinners and uninterrupted time together makes a special anniversary more significant, be it first, silver or gold.

A bed and breakfast on Beaver Island creates that magic. The new white cedar getaway is Beaver Island’s latest star. It takes two hours by car ferry to travel the 32 miles from Charlevoix in the northwest corner of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to this remote island in the middle of Lake Michigan.

Rob Saunders of Chicago is not celebrating an anniversary...yet. But he came here for romance, bent on proposing to his girlfriend, Julie Bunda. Soon after the couple arrived, Rob suggested a stroll on the beach. They walked. They skipped stones. And then, he presented the ring.

Beaver Island inn owners had special moments like these in mind when they built here. Couples walk the quiet beach or hike to an inland lake.

At the end of the day, the show from the deck is best of all. The sky turns into an array of pinks and purples. Waves shush against the shore, and a loon calls. You reach for a welcoming hand, and that first blush of love returns.

By Gerry Volgenau. Photographs by John Robert Williams.

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