Winter Getaway at Crystal Mountain Michigan

We just spent an amazing weekend relaxing at the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort for Thanksgiving. When our traditional place for our annual Thanksgiving Buffet was sold out, we scrambled to find a new one! My father stumbled upon this location and after visiting Ironwood this past fall, staying at a ski resort was on my bucket list - so we said yes! The resort had something for all of us all weekend long, and it stole our hearts.

Wednesday Night

My parents were able to arrive earlier than us to get the room set up and ready. We arrived Wednesday night and briefly walked around to familiarize ourselves. There were two gas firepits outside on the property, then we ended our walk at the fireplace inside the Inn. Each of the rental cabins and surrounding property was beautifully decorated for the holiday season.

Thursday

We all enjoyed a slow morning with the sunrise making the mountain glow. While my parents went out for their morning walk, we got ready for our ‘Thanksgiving Dinner’.

Mountain Market

We had forgotten to pick up a couple things for our portion of the hotel meals, but luckily they had a little convenience store at the Inn! It had everything we needed, and more. You could pick up gifts (our daughter added a few things to her Christmas list), local handmade products, fresh baked goods, fresh produce, snacks, lunches, drinks, and even medicine. I absolutely adored this little market and would have loved to try more of their freshly made goodies if we were staying longer. But for now, I walked away with a new sticker for my water bottle, a postcard, some medicine, and a few ingredients for our breakfasts.

Thanksgiving Buffet

I called to reserve our ‘Thanksgiving Dinner’, but they only had an opening around 11am. Although that may seem early for a dinner, that actually worked in our favor because we stuffed ourselves and had to walk around the resort a few times before we crawled into bed hours later. When I called to make the reservation, the person on the other line was super helpful, informative, and great to talk to! She walked me through how to add our dinner to our bookings after we made them and how they would provide us with an itinerary of all our events for the stay (I love a good itinerary!).

The dinner itself was absolutely delicious! The Turkey was a Michigan turkey and they had a Dearborn Ham. There was a salad bar, fruit and cheese plate, green beans, brussels sprouts, salmon, sweet potato & sausage hash, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls with honey butter (I’m obsessed with honey butter now), kid’s mac-n-cheese, kid’s chicken tenders, and so many more options that I can’t remember! But everything was delightful. I started with a salad, had my main course, then took a break with a cheese and fruit plate, and finally finished with desert. I can’t even begin to tell you how many plates my dad and brother had though!

Yes that is more honey butter, I had a roll with butter for every plate! It was really THAT good!

Like I said, we stuffed ourselves and had to walk around for a bit. But, that allowed us some more time in front of the outdoor fires! After we walked off our dinner enough to feel comfortable, we all headed to the Inn to play some card games in front of the fireplace. The fireplace just passed the checkout is a cozy space to relax or enjoy a conversation. It was the perfect space for us to play Crazy 8s and Old Maid (our daughter’s current favorites). After it was time for us to take our daughter back to the room for bedtime, my brother stayed behind to work in a quiet space.

Friday - Opening Day

It’s opening day! We went from being one of the handful guests to being surrounded by people very quickly. We didn’t mind though, it was entertaining to watch the skiers and snowboarders, the whole while thinking “oh we can totally do that”. My daughter wants to be a ‘skater’ after this trip and her Papa wants to take snowboarding lessons (I think I see a fun grandpa-granddaughter bonding experience in the future).

I actually started my morning bright and early and left everyone sleeping in the room to head to the fitness center. The fitness center, fitness classes, and pool are all included in our room stay. So, I took advantage of that opportunity to get some gentle exercises in while I had someone to watch my daughter! I know water aerobics is an amazing way to get my pregnant body moving, so I attended that class and Saturday morning’s gentle yoga. I have to admit, the water aerobics class was more intense than I thought they were, but it was an amazing start to my day! I had to walk around in the snow for a while afterwards to cool down (now I understand the Nordic spa experience). While I walked around to cool down, I wanted to check out everything the resort had to offer for my readers!

The Lodge

The Lodge was the next closest building to our hotel room. Inside, there was a cafe and a bar both overlooking the ski hill, gear rental, and a store that provided additional gear should you need them. I love how they had a mix of professional gear and handmade local items. There were these cute fleece mittens that I almost picked up for our daughter, but decided to keep searching for the perfect wool mittens. My parents headed back to the bar area to enjoy a couple of drinks while watching the skiers.

Hamlet

The Hamlet is the hotel space we stayed in. Our room was very spacious! I loved how the bathroom space was almost Japanese style with a separate room for the toilet, sink, and shower. This allowed us to be able to take showers without taking up the entire bathroom, we could all get ready at the same time, and it reminded me so much of our trip to Japan. We had a kitchenette with plates, silverware, cups, a toaster, coffee maker, microwave, and fridge. This worked perfectly for us! The only other thing we brought was a griddle and crockpot. Other than going to the Wild Tomato for lunch, we made all our meals in the room. We also had a small balcony space that was perfect for keeping our cooler and enjoying my tea with the sun. Outside the hotel are locker spaces to house all of your equipment.

Bungalows

Just past our hotel, you could find the Bungalows. These are little cottage style rentals with a living room, gas fireplace, full kitchen and dining area, master bedroom (some have additional rooms), deck, washer and dryer. I already mentioned how we fell in love and this may be our new tradition, I think we will try to stay in one of these next year! This sounds like the perfect home-away-from-home experience.

Kinlochen & The Thistle

The Kinlochen shop and Thistle restaurant are nearest the guest parking area. This building was super cozy and definitely sparked my Outlander-loving heart. I mean like, who wouldn’t enjoy a cuppa in front of that fireplace?! The shop was also so cute and I can’t get over how much I love the clothing that is offered at these shops. If you are looking for quality clothing for your outdoor-loving family, definitely check out the shops while you are here!

Peak Fitness Center & Spa

The Peak Fitness Center & Spa is where you will find the gym, fitness classes, pool, locker rooms, and spa area. In the front, you can also find another quaint giftshop where we picked up some relaxing eye masks. The locker room was quite small, but it seemed to be just enough spots even during the busiest point in the day. Hairdryers are provided in between sinks in the women’s locker room too. Thankfully, kids life vests and swim boards were provided too, because we forgot ours!

The Park At Water’s Edge

The Park at Water’s Edge is were you can find the summer swimming space, waterpark, aerial course, and heated outdoor hot tub. It’s also were you rent your ice skates. We picked up a kid’s scavenger hunt here as well and they have cute stuffed animals that you can build as a souvenir. After I walked around and cooled down for a bit, we headed here to pick up some ice skates for my husband and daughter. This was her first time skating and she LOVED it! Now we need to find some skates that tiny so her and I can go back home.

The Trails

Afterwards, we briefly headed to one of the many trails to capture our maternity pictures. The wooded space and ponds at the golf course were the perfect wintery-backdrop. I can post our pictures on my client blog soon!

Santa & The Tree Lighting

Friday was the kick-off of the holiday season, too! After taking our maternity pictures, we had to hurry back to the main space to see Mr. & Mrs. Clause arrive on a horse sleigh. Afterwards, you could enjoy a ride as well but all spots during our stay were reserved. So if you plan to enjoy the sleigh rides next year, book your spot ahead of time!

We were then able to meet them! Our daughter was so thrilled and couldn’t believe they were actually here. She then tried to negotiate opening some presents early since it was already snowing and she had already seen Santa, ha!

After walking around and visiting with all the children, Santa worked his ‘magic’ and lit the main tree. This was a wonderful way to end our trip! There were more events on Saturday that I was sad to miss, like a lantern lit hike, but we wanted to head back home so we could have all Sunday to recoup before going back to work.

Would you enjoy the slopes at Crystal Mountain, or have you before? I would love to hear your stories too in the comments below!