Living in a world of search engines and review sites, it is pretty rare to actually go anywhere without an already developed idea of what to expect. If all the reviews rave about a restaurant’s breakfast, that’s what you go for. Entire days and vacations can be planned around what we expect a place to be like. Sometimes that’s a great thing and helps us see the best of many places in a short amount of time. However, when we let our expectations of a place, or even a person, have too much value we can miss out on some great things. This photo is from Crosby Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. When I left the house it was raining and a great photo seemed out of the question according to the forecast. However, when I arrived the rain had lifted and the sun started to show itself from behind the clouds. I was glad I hadn’t let the potential for a rainout stop me from trying. Crosby Beach is an interesting stretch of beach with a reputation for its low tide exposing a swath of sand that even the locals love. While I would later return to visit at low tide, on this day high tide was my only option and even though the sun was starting to shine, I had no idea what I would find. As it turned out, high tide held rewards and allowed this picture to capture the rare beauty of these water rushed rocks as the sun came out from the clouds. A trip at the often preferred low tide couldn’t have produced this shot. That’s how life is, we take in information and opinions and have to decide if we are going to stick to what we have heard or if we are going to put our necks out and try something different. Even places we have been to time and time again, can surprise us if we let them. Sometimes we step into something knowing the situation doesn’t fit the textbook ideal – pitching a project our boss might not appreciate, visiting a location in the known ‘off’ season, heading out to the ball field even when the forecast says rain – and when we least expect it, we are present for something better than what any set of expectations could have laid out for us.