By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.
I have a sweet tooth. I don’t crave sweets. And if there are none in the house, I’m okay with that. But leave them lying around, and they won’t be there long, I assure you. It doesn’t matter what it is. Cake, cookies, pie, the occasional candy bar, and certainly the ice cream. Most any flavor will do.

So, as youngest daughter helped her parents plan our adventuring in the New England states this past summer, one spot she requested we at least walk into was the Parker House Hotel, officially called the Omni Parker House, in Boston. We walked around the nearby park and then headed just down the street to the grand old hotel, where we walked into the very large lobby, immediately reminded that we didn’t belong there. Alas, you would have never known it by the reception we received.

One kind gentleman behind the concierge desk, when I asked about some President Kennedy and Charles Dickens connections at the hotel, volunteered to give us a grand tour. And grand it was. Down a back stairway, through narrow underground passages, into the extremely large kitchen. It was in that kitchen that the first original Boston cream pie was created. It was also there that the aptly named Parker House rolls came to be.

Years old equipment is still in use to create these wonderful treats, such as the Boston cream pie you see here in my photo. We really were treated very well and were showed lots of history in the old place, namely the table where J.F.K. proposed to Jacqueline, and the door to the room Charles Dickens once occupied while there. To close our nice tour, we stopped in the little shop and purchased Boston cream pies for each of us. Beautiful looking, even decadent. But I was not impressed.

The place was gorgeous, the history was amazing, the kindness shown to us made our day. But something that cost so much tasted so plain to me.
The world brings a hype with it that makes too many things look so wonderful, feel so grand, and make us want to come back for more. But then we get a big taste, and we finally realize it wasn’t all it was made up to be.

As you go about the grand adventures of your week ahead, remember the old saying, “All that glitters is not gold.” Just because it looks delicious and has a grand price tag on it, doesn’t mean it’s all that great. Experience all you can, within moral reason, of course, but be careful what you take in. It just might leave a bitter taste in your mouth to remind you of your mistake.

Just a thought.

Till later,

Brad