It was Saturday morning, just after breakfast, and Calandra and Everett were going over to watch the tipi being put up.  “We’ve never seen this done before!”  Everett had his neck craned back, looking straight up to the tops of the first four tipi poles already in place…”  The Sparrow’s Choice
Off to the museum on this field trip, the Ninepipes Museum, to learn about the history of our valley, the Salish and Kootenai tribes living here and the early days of the Hudson Bay Company.

It couldn’t have been a prettier day.  This area is a refuge and a wetland management district.  I’m always hopeful to see swans here, a fairly rare treat, but always there are geese and a variety of ducks swimming in the runoff-filled ponds, nests tucked in the cat tails and along the grassy shorelines.

I stopped here for breakfast in 1992, I think it was, when I was wondering around the West looking for a place to settle.  It was the dead of winter but I remember the Ninepipes Lodge and the view.   Now coming into spring, there is no better view of the Mission Mountains than across this sweet pond in the back of the restaurant, complete with geese and their goslings and turtles out sunning themselves.  No way I could have known all these years later I’d get here in a school bus!  🙂

I wish I’d remembered about this great old buckboard, I’d have taken my own picture for the cover of my book!