I began writing this blog and my story ten years ago when I decided to turn my, then, residence into my dream creation, 1922 Starkey House Bed & Breakfast Inn.
I was born and raised on a country farm about ten miles from the location of the house. At eighteen, I left to explore the sites of the world for thirty years and then returned again, a different time of life, a different outlook.
This year is a special year for so many reasons! The Starkey House and I are celebrating ten years since welcoming our first guests. I remember that it was a newly married, young couple from Atlantic City, New Jersey that was standing at my front door, excited at the prospects of celebrating their honeymoon. This was their first time staying at a bed and breakfast house and . . . my first time hosting! “This is real!” I thought. Here we go . . . and now it is ten years later.
I can tell you that this has been one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences in my entire life. The most important takeaways from owning and managing this business, is that I have regained my faith in humans.
Most people are inherently good and kind.
And, secondly I am very proud of myself and all that has been accomplished in owning a hospitality business of this type. I’ve been able to utilize all of my training and past experiences from my other lives and applied them to cultivating and growing a business that my guests have enjoyed, loved and returned to year after year. I have given the best of me in the most difficult and most rewarding of situations. I wouldn’t change a thing about any aspect of the past ten years.
Thanks to all of my friends who have been here and those who will still come to visit. Enjoy, take it all in, and fall in love so that you will also become as passionate about the Finger Lakes as I am.
Thanks, from the heart!
