Some friends were visiting from Hawaii with some other friends of theirs, so we all decided it would be fun to go up to Crystal Mountain for Sunday brunch at the Summit House Bistro.  What a fabulous idea it turned out to be!

Their daughter, Isabella, had never been on a chairlift before, so that was a huge part of the attraction for her.  And most of them had never seen the view of Mt. Rainier from Crystal Mountain’s summit—which is one of the best views of Mt. Rainier anywhere!  And to top it all off, we were all really hungry! 

When you get to Crystal, there’s a window open at the Glacier Express Snack Bar, for those who want to buy lift tickets only—or who just need a snack while they visit Crystal.  We had reservations, so we were able to just hop on the Chinook Express chair for the ride halfway up to the summit.  The view of the slopes and the flowers was incredible.  At the half way point, we changed to the Rainier Express chairlift for the ride to the summit.

On top, the view of Mt. Rainier is amazing!  Everyone pulled out cameras and we probably spent a good 10 minutes taking photos of each other!  There was a wonderful cooling breeze, and everyone was relaxing and enjoying the view.  A group of horseback riders had riden up from the bottom with their dog, and another couple had riden up on mountain bikes.  There was also a scattering of intrepid hikers also who had walked all the way up!

As I said, we were hungry (!) so it was time for brunch.  When we sat down at our table, we were offered a complimentary mimosa, and the staff was nice enough to put Isabella’s virgin mimosa (orange juice) in the same type of glass so she could feel part of the celebration!  The food was really delicious.  There was a buffet with fruit and the most amazing watermelon, fresh basil and chevre salad I had every tasted.  The buffet line had some of the standard items you might expect (french toast, sausage, bacon) and some items that were exceptional.  I particularly loved the seafood pasta and a vegetarian cous cous dish, while my husband loved the beef “nugget” tenderloins.  There was also an omelette station where you could request made to order omelettes.

As if all that wasn’t enough, they even had a dessert station—with cookies, petit fours and poached pears (my favorite).

After all that food, we decided we needed to take a hike.  We went over to Grubstake Peak and hiked up past the weather station to take a look at the flowers and views of surrounding peaks.  My husband and I ski at Crystal all the time during the winter, and so it was particularly fun for us to get a close up view of a chute that we’ve skied that actually looks more like a cliff without all the snow!  There we a lot of lupine that filled the slopes with purple, and a pretty melt “lake” at the bottom of Snorting Elk. 

All in all, it was a wonderful, somewhat lazy way, to spend part of a Sunday afternoon—and we would highly recommend it to anyone.

http://www.skicrystal.com/Summer-Activities/Dining-Summit-House