Sumi's Kitchen - A Fabulous Japanese Eatery

We took a drive the other day looking around the country. Montana is beautiful and wild and certainly most enjoyable when it is not winter, our home on wheels is not the best living accommodation in the cold and snows of the winter. We stopped in Eureka, Montana for a bit of lunch at Sumi’s Kitchen, you need to eat here when next in Eureka or for that matter just come on up here for lunch, it is a great little place.

On this map, the red marker in the upper center shows the location of Eureka. Spokane, WA is indicated with a yellow circle on the left side while Missoula, MT is shown on the lower right with another yellow mark. This is not Eureka, Washington nor Eureka, California this is Montana and as you can see from the solid line across the top of the map it is close to the border with Canada.

Downtown Eureka consists of this main highway that runs through town. Eureka is a fascinating though not huge town. Before and after we took this picture there were a lot of recreational vehicle traffic both coming from and heading to Canada and other locations in the area. We must have just miss timed the RVs.

We had parked a short distance from the main street in the shade of some large trees, walked up the block and on rounding the corner saw this sign on the door. Since we were looking for a place for lunch we decided to give it a try. Much of the food available for lunch seems to be hamburgers and fries or some such fare so a contrasting Japanese stir fry dish sounded really appealing.

On the wall is this collection of signs. As we will see in the next photo Sumi is more towards the skinny end of the spectrum and not the fat side so should she be trusted?

This is the cook and owner Sumi Sugiyama. There is a series of woks on the stove beside her and that is where she crafts the food. There are no other cook nor sous chefs or prep help, just her. There is a neat lady who is the waitress and general helper but Sumi does all the cooking. There is a sign on the wall that says they only have one cook and your meal will be cooked to order. The little sign does not include this comment but we found out "there is no fast food here just great food".

Deanna ordered hot green tea and they brought this beautiful tea cup with lid. It is a fascinating work of art for a tea cup.

We have a very good friend named Rodger who really likes Tofu so whenever we get the chance we order that dish in his honor. This is Sumi’s wonderful rendition of Tofu and Vegetables. Deanna ordered Chicken Hunan which was spicy with a wonderful flavor. Both dishes were excellent and the pot stickers that we had as an appetizer were better than good. We are certain that all the dishes, regardless of what you ordered, would be fabulous. And yes Rodger the Tofu was great. 

This shows the list of daily specials that is posted on the wall. As you can see it is not an expensive place to eat. Great food and inexpensive prices, one cannot beat this combination almost anywhere we have eaten.

Here on the counter is a Maneki Neko also known as a Lucky Cat or Fortune Cat. It is really not waving good bye rather if the left paw is raised, as in this case, this supposedly attracts customers. If the right paw is raised, that invites good fortune and money. It must work because it certainly attracted us as customers.

Unfortunately Sumi’s does not have any dessert and what is better after a long day of travel and a great meal than dessert. Fortunately in Eureka there is a homemade ice cream store just up the street called G’s. Of course we stopped there and the ice cream was wonderful, rich, creamy, and very flavorful. G’s is a really busy place but a worthwhile stop.

On your next sojourn through Eureka, Montana you must stop at Sumi’s for a bite to eat. They may be closed Saturday and Sunday but open for a great dining experience during the rest of the week. Give them a call to confirm their hours as we have seen different open and closed times Be sure and eat at Sumi’s, great food and neat people.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best – George & Deanna

Not Snow - Rvs - Walk Your Dog - Horse Finches

Here are just a few extraneous images that were not included in any previous post. This is a short but fun little post.

This is River Oaks RV Park and the lineup of RV’s. This is where we stayed in Oroville, WA during most of June. The park is by no means full and for most of the time we were there only four or five other RVs were in the park with us. The park is only 6 miles from the border crossing and it gets busy with folks stopping for the night, buying groceries, and fueling up before crossing into Canada or heading up the Alcan to Alaska. Behind the lineup of RVs is the Similkameen River which comes out of Canada, joins the Okanagan River and then heads south to join the Columbia.

No this image does not show it snowing. There is a row of large cottonwood trees along the river right behind our RV and the Cottonwoods are releasing their seeds. It was interesting, the center portion of the row of RVs in the above image, had about 90 percent of the cotton while the sites on either end had limited exposure to the white stuff.

Here is the cotton seed on the ground. We wondered why the world is not completely covered with Cottonwood Trees.

We thought this an interesting comparison in Trailer sizes. The one in front, a brand called Scamp, is tiny. We were unsure how people actually lived in the trailer. Next is a more standard travel trailer followed by a larger fifth wheel unit. There is something for everyone.

Oops, then this behemoth parked at a pull through site and spent the night. There is even a small tow behind trailer behind the big Carbon fifth wheel. In many western states you can tow a trailer behind the fifth wheel trailer. Not sure it is legal in Washington State but in many other states it is. One would not even begin to think about backing up this combination at all, not no way, not no how. These larger units are called toy haulers because they have a large garage area in the back where ATVs, motorcycles or other toys can be stored. They must have lots and lots of toys.

We had an image of Tank, the large dog seen here, in an earlier post. Here a person is giving Tank a walk using the golf cart or maybe Tank is taking the cart for a walk. We have a friend, Terry, who manages Cranberry RV Park on Long Beach in Washington State and she just got a Golf Cart and she already had two standard size black poodles. Maybe this is how she gets them their exercise.

Now we are in Libby, MT and we have some horses in the field directly behind our trailer. It was most interesting to see several small birds riding on one of the horses. Could they be Brown-headed Cowbirds or were they some other avian species?

On closer examination we found they were Horse Finches, at least that is what they looked like to us. More likely they are a group of juvenile House Finches but they look like Horse Finches to us. They have been riding around for a while as evidenced by the bird droppings on the back of the horse. What fun to ride around and take in the countryside on the back of a big horse.

These were the last few fun images left from our brief time spent in Oroville, Washington. It is a great place and a worthwhile stop. We hope you enjoyed this short post.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best – George & Deanna

Ross Creek Cedars

Ross Creek Cedars is a stand of old growth Western Red Cedars that is located not far from where we are staying in Libby Montana. The trees and setting are really hard to describe. It is way beyond words and creates a wonder in your spirit when you walk among the giants. It is a beautiful place you need to experience.

This map gives you a perspective of the location in regards to Libby and Troy Montana. The highway south passing by Bull Lake is great but the winding narrow road for the last 4 miles will want you to pay attention. It is narrow and twisty but certainly passable for any vehicle.

This is a placard at the start of the trail into the Cedars. There is a path that goes out and back and a designated Nature Trail that provides a partial loop return should you take it.

The path is in great condition and seems to get a lot of use. We were there on July 4th and the parking lot was rather full. Lots of people are enjoying this environment.

This gives you a perspective of the enormity of some of the trees. Various write-ups indicate some of the trees are 400-500 years old and are 8 feet across. They are big trees.

As you wander through the trees you need to look at other interesting aspects of the environment as well. Look down, look small, don’t just be awed by the trees there is so many other fascinating things to see. The place is a complete ecosystem, not just trees.

However you cannot miss the trees in all their grandeur.

Many trees have fallen over during the past centuries and are in various stages of decay. Here root structure from one of the fallen giants rests in the air. It is quite intricate and complex.

The pathway in many places passes between the trees. This image provides a perspective as to how small we are compared to the large Cedars

In the image above there are two trees on the right hand side. The right most tree in this pair has an intricate burl type of growth at the base. Many of the old cedar exhibit growths of various types and sizes.

At one point on the Nature Trail there is a dry, rock strewn stream bed. It appears that someone started stacking rocks in the stream bed, there is a lot of material for stacking readily available, and many others followed suit. There are many different stacks of rocks of various sizes and dimensions.

This is just one example of the rock stacks quite intricate and well done.

These are stacked on top of a fallen log. It provides a different setting to the rocks. It appears that since the stacks are all in place that there has not been a lot of water coursing this stream. Perhaps it has gone underground at this point.

Here Deanna follows the path through the trees. The moss is everywhere and not a lot of light gets to the forest floor. Ferns and shade loving plants thrive here.

Don’t forget to look for the smaller fascinating pieces of this environment. This is part of an exposed root from one of the fallen cedars.

Along the trail there is this hollowed out snag. It is maybe 45 feet tall or more. The center has been eaten away by time and the woodpeckers have drilled the outside bark looking for grubs. It is very sturdy and strong even without a central core. It is a non-growing snag, really neat to see.

At various points along the trail you will see portions of this babbling brook while at other locations it seems to disappear or dramatically diminish in flow.

Here is Deanna and the boys standing in front of one of the Western Red Cedar.

Various pieces of information and documents indicate that early loggers, upon seeing this grove, decided to try and preserve it instead of logging the area. We are certainly glad they did. It is a beautiful place of magic and wonder, a place you must experience. Be sure and make the effort to visit the Ross Creek Cedars

Let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna

Hummingbirds and Slower Sights

We spent a few days in far eastern Washington at a site along the Pend Oreille River which is a tributary of the Columbia and in the area where were we staying the river runs north towards Canada. As we often do at a site we put up a Hummingbird feeder and proceeded to watch the festivities.

The view up the river was quite beautiful. This image is taken from the RV site we were occupying. Here in the early morning there was some fog drifting across the river.

Several people in the park were seasonal visitors meaning they stay 5 months. They come in beginning in May and stay until the cold forces them to leave in early October. The people in the site next to us lived in Coleville, WA about 45 miles away and came over here each weekend with their family. They had boats and ATVs and all the toys. They leave their trailer and all the items at the site for the full five months. They were really neat people.

We have always had trouble getting decent images of Hummingbirds. They are birds of constant motion and as soon as you try to focus on one it is gone either chasing another hummer or being chased. Here is a Black-chinned Male named for the obvious Black colored chin.

Here is a Black-chinned female. She has a clear breast and a very slight curve to the bill. There are white spots on the end of tail and small white mark behind the eye. Several other hummingbirds will show some of these same attributes but we are fortunate here in that we have only seen Black-chinned and Rufous Hummingbirds.

Ok look up, look up. As mentioned the hummingbirds are always moving. They look up and down and side to side. You need to spot a predator before it spots you and you need to be wary of other hummingbirds trying to drink from YOUR feeder.

Not being ornithologists but still a little observant, we can tell, almost immediately, that this is not a hummingbird. It is a Gray Catbird. There were a pair of them that had a nest in the area and we saw them frequently. The fence the bird is sitting on is the boundary of our site and keeps us from falling off the cliff and into the cold water of the river.

We looked a lot for Loons when we were over in the Oroville area. Here swimming south or up the river is this neat looking Common Loon just paddling along. We never did see the Loon dive so it must not have been hungry. By all reports there were a lot of fish in the river for the Loon to eat.

Old “One Wing Willie” sure struck quite a pose. No he doesn’t have just one wing and we doubt he is waving at us. We just happened to catch this Black-chinned male stretching and relaxing from all the activity and chasing and eating.

This is a Rufous Male named for the obvious rufous coloration of the body feathers. The colorful feathers around the neck, called the gorget, are not pigmented colors rather structural colors which means they are reflected by microscopic structural features of the feather surface. You can see a wide variety of colors displayed by the hummingbird.

This is a Rufous Hummingbird female. She has some of the reddish tinge to her that we saw more prominently on the male. Note the tongue on the end of the beak. Quite a long tongue to reach into flowers or the feeder as in this case.

This was just an interesting pose for a hummingbird, the colors show up quite well.

This is a fun image that we don’t see very often. There are two hummingbirds sitting and drinking at the feeder at the same time. Generally one chases the other off or some dominant male chase both of them off. The further interesting aspect of this image is that the one on the left is a Rufous female and the one on the right side is a Black-chinned female. You can see the size difference, bill length difference and markings fairly clearly. This is a decent comparison of the two females of their respective species.

We have seen the hummingbirds look in all directions. This Rufous is looking down at something. You never can be too careful. Who knows where the enemy lurks.

Here is a final view from the front door looking down the river. It is a beautiful, serene, mesmerizing setting and one could just stay there for a long time or at least until the cold and snows of winter started arriving.

This concludes our brief look at Hummingbirds at Blueslide RV. We hope you found the images and narrative a little interesting and somewhat fun to read. We enjoyed seeing the birds and taking the pictures. Northern Washington State is really great country for a visit and a great vacation, oops I think since we travel full time we might be considered always on vacation. Oh well, it is a wonderful place nonetheless.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna