Kim’s mother came up to Seattle in August for her annual visit. She loves our nearby mountains, so for this year’s trip we decided to visit the Crystal Mountain ski resort and take a gondola ride to the Summit House restaurant.

The area near the restaurant is famous for its view of nearby Mt. Rainier, but because of the Canadian forest fire smoke that has clouded up the entire Pacific Northwest, we couldn’t even see the summit 10 miles across the valley.

So instead we entertained ourselves with several short hikes around the top of the resort to pass the time before our early dinner reservation.

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