As lovers of cupcakes and other sweet confections, Pam and I are always on the lookout for a new place to quench our desire for sugary Nirvana. This week, we found one: Crumbl.

No, that's not a typo. Crumbl, sans the "e," is a cookie store that is apparently taking the country by storm. The brainchild of two cousins, the first Crumbl opened in 2017 in Logan, Utah, and has since expanded to over 800 locations in 49 states, making it the fastest-growing cookie franchise in the United States.

When we learned one of those locations was across the street from Costco on Northlake Blvd., we wasted no time making the trek there. 

We discover a big plus right off the bat -- they are open six days a week (closed Sunday), from 8 am to 10 pm, and open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Now we have somewhere to go that doesn't close at 5 pm. 

​The first thing to know about Crumbl is their store is incredibly clean, and open. You can watch the cookie makers at work, right alongside the large mixing machines that churn the dough. A big display lists the "Flavors of the Week" menu, which rotates weekly, and then the hard part starts: Making a decision.

Today we can choose from Milk Chocolate Chip, Cookie Butter Ice Cream, Confetti Cake, Peanut Butter Brownie, Triple Berry Cobbler, Classic Pink Sugar, Dirt Cake, Strawberry Cake, Chocolate Milk and Semi-Sweet Chocolate. Too bad they don't offer a mini-sampler -- I need to try them all. Ultimately, Pam goes with the Semi-Sweet and I pick Cookie Butter Ice Cream.

Price-wise, a single cookie is $4.48, with a 4-pack going for $14.60 and a 6-pack for $22.48. There's also the Party Box, $38.23, if you want to impress your friends.

​Each cookie is nicely packaged by the store's friendly attendant in a pretty pink box, which Pam says reminds her of the pink packaging used by Sprinkles cupcakes in Beverly Hills. Be advised: Not only are the cookies large, but also thick. in other words, one cookie will probably fulfill your cookie cravings.

​Now, about the taste. We both agree -- one of the best store-bought cookies we've ever had, comparable to the cookie we've always held in high esteem, Cheryl's, in Columbus, Ohio. Sorry, Cheryl's, but that's the way the cookie crumbls.

​Besides, Northlake is a tad closer than Columbus, Ohio.

If you listened to Pam's "Gigi in the 561" podcast today (and I hope you do), she talks about the "Sky Hotel," a concept envisioned to forever circle our skies and never have to land, or at least, rarely touch down.

It gave me immediate flashbacks to my growing up years when I devoured science fiction  writers like Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein, to name a few, as well as movies like "This Island Earth" and "Forbidden Plant." Most painted a futuristic earth where cities of glass and steel floated in the clouds, and people moved about in flying cars. The idea of a flying hotel would fit right in.

Powered by nuclear energy, the Sky Hotel would circle the earth continuously, giving vacationers spectacular views of the planet and phenomena like the Northern Lights. Guests would be ferried to and from by jet planes and transported via elevators to the hotel.

The dream of a hotel in the sky has been around a long time. It played a pivotal role in the late, great Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, "2001: A Space Odyssey." Since the dawn of the Space Age, and particularly since the privatization of space travel, many of us expect a Hyatt or Hilton to be orbiting the earth any time now.

While many things science fiction have become science fact, it's still much easier to create concepts than take those dreams from the drawing board to reality. And just imagine how much a stay in the Sky Hotel would cost, and that's before you add in the "resort fee" -- not to mention what the valet charge would be to park a private plane or jet.

Isn't it sad how reality crushes our childhood dreams of one day living like "The Jetsons"? Chances are, we'll have to settle for the virtual reality version of hotels that fly or cities that float in the clouds. I'll ask my AI app to get busy on that.