Mt Rainier, again

It seems that we are fascinated with this mountain, I know, but there is much to be fascinated about.  We had another clear day this weekend and headed off to see it from its neighbor peak, Crystal Mountain.  Crystal is a ski resort with a summer gondola ride up the mountain to a lovely restaurant and the most spectacular view of Rainier we've seen yet.  I've been reading about summers on Crystal Mountain for months and couldn't resist!

And we weren't disappointed.  The view of Rainier and its neighbor Mt Adams were amazing.  The restaurant was lovely and the food was fantastic.  The gondola ride was pure luxury and the just-warm-enough sunny weather was the icing on the cake.  Wonderful!

It turns out that it's about a 2 hour (plus) drive from our house to Crystal Mountain and another hour from there to Mt Rainier.  We, of course, didn't realize that the distance between the two was that significant, and armed with no actual distance/time information we thought to dash over there after we'd 'done' the gondola ride and a little hiking on Crystal.  We wanted to see if the snow pack had melted down enough to get the picture of the mountain reflected in the lake that had eluded us the last time.

It was not to be.  By the time we made our way to the lake a large bank of clouds was rolling in over the mountain, being pushed by enough of a breeze to make the lake a little choppy besides - not at all the mirror surface my 'dream picture' would require even if the mountain had cooperated.  Stymied again!  (Mark thought it was quite a bit more funny than I did, on the whole...)  Why is this so difficult?

Anyway, ultimately Mark got better pictures of the day than I did - of which he is enormously pleased and anxious to have them posted here: