Cruising Alaska

One thing that struck me about Alaska and that part of the continent is the sheer number of cruise ships I saw. They were in Anchorage, they were in Prince William Sound when we flew over. We witnessed several in the Inside Passage when the clouds broke enough for us to see the surface.
They were in Juneau:


When we stopped for fuel two passed in the short time we were there:


I used to think I wanted to take an Alaskan cruise, but after seeing how many there are at each of these places, I'm not so sure. I didn't have the camera ready, but at one point we saw four of them in unision heading north only a mile or two apart. Seeing Alaska that way, just doesn't seem right anymore.

Closer to home we stopped in Port Hardy, BC to clear customs and refuel before flying east over the Rockies.

Port Hardy Airport, BC was an interesting sight. A small regional carrier,Pacific Coastal, was operating a rather ecclectic fleet. They had a Shorts(similar to the Sherpa-looking cargo plane I posted about earlier), Beech 1900s, Beavers on floats, and even a couple of Grumman Geese.

The below picture capture a fair portion of their flock at the time.

Their scheduling made for a rather nifty sight as well. Just about the time we landed all of these planes alighted at the same time. They switched passengers and then scattered again, It was sort of like seagulls on pieces of thrown bread.