Expectations are inevitable. We all have them. And we all had them for this voyage to Southeast Alaska. We thought we knew what to expect as we have all seen the images from travel documentaries of Alaska, its wildlife, and its spectacular scenery. But today, on our final day of the voyage, while kayaking in silence or walking in the forest, we reflected on what we had not expected.

At the beginning of the week, being completely surrounded by humpback whales, listening to the whoosh of their breath, blowing their exhalation high into the air and listening to them deeply draw in a new breath. Some of us had never before seen a whale in the wild, and had hopes to catch a glimpse of one breaking the surface. Our expectations were far surpassed. And there was the day we watched from the bow of the ship a Sitka black-tailed deer and her fawn on the beach, frozen motionless. In Glacier Bay National Park, transfixed, binoculars pressed to our eyes, a brown bear pried rocks with the flick of one paw searching for food, and again surpassed our hopes of just spotting a bear.

Today, more surprises came at the head of Tracy Arm, a 25-mile long fjord. While cruising in the Zodiacs we watched the glacier, hoping to see some calving. Our surprise came when suddenly a large, densely blue, house-sized block of ice came roaring up out of the water in front of the glacier face. Shooters they are called, caused from the ice breaking off the face of the glacier below the surface of the water. This crystal blue ice seen just in front of our Zodiac after it had drifted away from the face was more like the color of a gemstone than of ice.

We thought we knew what to expect from this voyage but found so much more.