A May to Remember!

May was a busy month! On the 3rd, Norm and I left by train and headed to Chicago. We then flew from O'Hare to Honolulu on May 4th, to attend oldest son Billy's wedding!! It was great to finally meet Kacey's family and celebrate such a beautiful wedding in breathtaking tropical surroundings. That is NOT a big poster behind them! The flora and fauna surrounding this historic Hawaiian Fish Pond, which connects to Kaneohe Bay and the Pacific, was paradise at its finest.

Billy & Kacey Shreve - Moli'i Pond, Kaaawa, Hawaii

The wedding party!

Don't you feel sorry for these two? They are forced to live in the beauty of the tropical paradise called HAWAII!! I keep thinking how I could grow my tropical hibiscus "outside" year round. Currently, the dozen potted hibiscus bushes and tree we have, are yet to be set out for the summer.


Ahhh, the sweet aromas stay with you for a long time. The plumeria and tuberose were not only beautiful, but sweetly aromatic and heavenly. I can almost smell them now. The bridesmaids wore yellow plumeria leis, and the Moms' leis were tuberose and roses. The men wore tea leaf and kukui nut, traditionally.


So we arrived home on Friday the 13th. Though I'm not a superstitious person, somehow Friday the 13th was not the luckiest for us. Norm was not feeling well a couple days before we left Hawaii and suffered on the flight back. He's well now, but he passed it on to me!! Thanks, buddy! :0) I've had bronchitis twice now this spring! I'm on the downhill side of it now, thankfully, and am feeling about 98% now! We came home to a hail damaged vehicle too...bummed about that.


Something else we did was to bring the rain along with us. No, not really, but it seems that way. Hawaii was unseasonably wet for this time of year, and it seemed to follow us home. We've been waiting and waiting to be able to paint the porch and can't manage more than a day at a time without rain here. I won't even mention the severity of weeds with all this rain. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...so we're doing our best to work outside when weather permits. Maybe a few more appeals to Mother Nature would help?? So if you're so inclined... Thanks! I'm hoping to get the waterfall working again this week, and am hoping I won't need to replace the pump. Those babies are expensive and it seems that about every 4-5 yrs, they need replacing. Ugh...


Our hummingbirds are back in full force!! I've seen 8 of them that I counted all at once. I'm sure the 2 dozen or so will be here after the babies hatch. We have 4 males and 4 females at the least, so that bodes well for having at least 8 more this summer. They are eating a LOT of our home-made nectar. I'm thinking that we'll go through another 40+ pounds of sugar this year.


Business is good, in spite of being closed for about 18 days from the beginning of May, while we were gone and then recovering from colds. So don't delay in making reservations for the summer. It's filling fast! Not much left for Tom Sawyer Days around July 4th, and weekends in general are pretty full already. Our Fall Folklife Festival still has openings, so be sure to reserve your room in a timely manner.


HANNIBAL IS NOT FLOODED! We have a levee system which keeps our downtown dry, and business as usual. Though the flood gates may be in, our Riverboat still runs from a location just a few hundred yards up river. Retail shops etc on Main Street remain open when the gates are in, so don't let that deter you from making your trip to Hannibal this summer. Hannibal is OPEN FOR BUSINESS as usual.


Hope to see our repeats and new guests soon!
Judy and Norm

One of Our Favorite Celebrations and SPRING!

                 It's soon to be SPRING!  I look forward to celebrating the Irish heritage of our last name! This is one of my favorite times to celebrate. Now since I was adopted and can't truly identify my heritage, I can claim whatever I want, right? With a last name like "O" 'Reagan, I guess it's ok for me to be Irish in March. There is no question about Norm whose parents' surnames were Mcguire and Reagan, so celebrate we will! Why don't you join us at Reagan's Queen Anne Bed and Breakfast in Hannibal, in March!?

Spring Crocus!

         I LOVE Spring, all the newness of plant growth and G R E E N !

Following a long snowy winter, it's always a welcome sight to see the green sprouts peeking through the soil. Within the past few days, I have seen crocus, daffodil and hyacinth leaves poking through, and I just can't wait to see the wonderful colors of spring flowers. The floral aromas wafting through the air make things feel all fresh and clean.  And...when Spring arrives, I know that soon we'll see our little GREEN jewels, our Ruby-Throated hummingbirds. I hope they are not late arriving this year. We didn't see our first until MAY 5TH of 2010! Cinco de Mayo is about 3 weeks later than usual for our hummers to reach northeastern Missouri. I mentioned last year that we served up over 40 pounds of sugar to these magnificent and amazing little feathered friends. It's quite a job keeping up with them! We hope you will consider a visit to our little slice of heaven here.

   

One of our Females enjoying a morning snack, 8/9/08

 We've had a local flock of about 2 dozen hummers for the past few years. It's not easy to count them, but I have seen 18 all in one place here on occasion.


And I know that having 9-12 feeders out in different parts of the yard, will draw some to the areas I can't see when I'm in the front, side or back yard. It's possible that we have more than 2 dozen. Oh, I just can't wait to see them again!

Dog Days of Summer

We've arrived once again at the point when school buses are busy hauling the kids back and forth to school. It just doesn't seem possible that summer will be over in but a month. Here at Reagan's Queen Anne, we've been super busy over the past year and time continues to FLY>>>>>. Thanks to our wonderful guests past, and those we've yet to meet, our year looks like it will be right at the top of the charts.

Many guests ask how the two of us handle this by ourselves. Well, we're both thankful for auto-pilot, that's for sure. Working this hard seems like second nature at this point. This year we are surviving it well. We have taken some short R&R trips this summer, to rejuvenate and refuel for the guests to come. Most recently, we visited Tuck U Inn at Glick Mansion in Atchison, KS. What a delightful getaway! We will want to call Loman and Chris again, for sure. Just a few weeks after that, we thoroughly enjoyed a stay with Bill and Debbie in Augusta, MO, at the Lindenhof B and B. We are looking forward to more sneak aways in the future, just like those. It's great to fraternize with fellow innkeepers and be on the receiving end of pampering. Sharing recipes is always a plus too! We are excited to have some new items on the menu.

So, join us in Hannibal this summer and autumn. If you hurry, you will certainly be entertained by our 2 dozen hummingbirds. Don't delay if you're coming to see them. They'll be leaving in mid-late September. We've prepared over 35 pounds of sugar nectar for them over the past couple months, and they continue to drain 80% of the 9-10 feeders we put out daily. Here is a photo I took on Tuesday. I've been working with them to feed from my hand. What a thrill that is!

We hope to meet you soon!