Day 11: Sportsman's Inn, Killarney

Seapickle II docked in front of the Sportsman's Inn, Killarney, Ontario

Monday, August 5th: After enjoying the morning in The Pool, we cleaned the weeds off the anchor and headed to Killarney to spend the night at the Sportsman's Inn. (The weeds weren't too bad, but I'm thinking it's because we were tied to shore and not swinging all night) We enjoyed the trip from The Pool to the small craft route through the Landsdown Channel, and finally to Killarney.

Welcome to Killarney

Across the channel

Our Lady of Lourdes shrine across the channel

Killarney's busy "main street" outside the Sportsman's Inn

Herbert's Fisheries from the Sportsman Inn

We weren't really sure what to expect from Killarney. For such a small town, the channel sure was busy! We pulled up to the fuel dock in front of the Sportsman's and inquired about a slip for the night, and were directed to the first slip right in front of the Inn. It was a little nerve-racking getting into the slip with all the activity going on, and the lack of space, but we made it ok. 

We were both starving, and saw that the line over at Herbert's was pretty long, so I jumped off the boat (pretty much as soon as it stopped moving) and went in search of poutine. Luckily I didn't have to go far! Gateway Marine, next door to the Sportsman's had delicious poutine in a couple of sizes for carryout. :-)  Wonderful!

Gateway Marine & Restaurant, Killarney

Inside Gateway Restaurant

Bringing the goods back to the boat

Gateway Poutine - YUMMY

After getting some poutine in our bellies, we took off to explore town. On the way back, we figured we might as well stop at Herberts. We weren't hungry yet, but the line was really long so we went ahead and ordered one order to share. 2 HOURS LATER, we were actually hungry now and we still hadn't gotten our fish & chips! Ben decided to order another of fish & poutine meal from Gateway so that we could share that too, and see which we liked better. Later we found out that we were in Killarney on the Civic Holiday, so Canadians had the day off work, hence the crazy long line!

Herbert Fisheries Fish & Chips - in the famous red bus!

Herbert's Fish & Chips, Killarney

Herberts on the right, Gateway on the left.

The fish & chip verdict was: Gateway's fish, more of a beer-battered fish, was Ben's choice. I preferred Herbert's "meatier" lightly battered fish. The "chips" were no comparison though. I couldn't even eat Herbert's - they were so soggy and greasy. :-(  The Gateway poutine definitely won that battle! We were definitely happy though that we got to try Herbert's. You can't go to the North Channel and not try it! But just an fyi, our all time favorite fish and chips anywhere is still Lake Huron Fish & Chips, in Providence Bay on Manitoulin Island. You can read about it from our last trip here.

Great... now I'm starving and wishing for some Lake Huron Fish & Chips and poutine!!
I guess we'll have to make it back there someday!

I'll leave you with one more Killarney pic that shows just how water-focused the town is. Sportman's Inn has its very own boat-in theatre! The night we were there they played "Home Alone" (really?). All the boating action really makes this town a cool place to be, but we're already longing for the seclusion of a deserted anchorage. Hopefully we'll find a good one tomorrow. :-)

Boat-in Theatre - how cool is that!