A couple of years ago, my husband and I drove up to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

I had three things on my bucket list:

1. See a grizzly
2. Canoe Lake Louise
3. Have a meal inside Chateau Lake Louise

The day that we arrived, a huge rainstorm passed over us. The rain’s driving force was so powerful that it completely cleaned our vehicle. The sky turned crystal blue.

On our way to Lake Louise I saw many cars pulled over and people standing with their cameras. “Pull over, pull over!” I said to my husband. I jumped out and leveled my camera just in time to catch the hindquarters of a grizzly disappearing into the vegetation. Check that off my list. Yay!

We found a parking spot after much driving around and around the parking area. Hiking down to Lake Louise, we saw the canoe rental and I squealed with eagerness. Bruce and I are old hands with canoes. (We had a great canoe—a Grumman, seventeen footer, a veteran of explorer of Boundary waters, and multiple Colorado lakes— until my husband gave it away. GAVE IT AWAY! But that’s another story.)

Anyway, we buckled our life vests, climbed into our canoe and rowed way out onto the lake. The water was an amazing opaque turquoise. Locals explained that the milkiness was the result of glacial silt, washing down from the glacier above the lake. Check two!

Afterward, we wandered over to the Chateau to have a look see. Very British inside. Expensive stores. A harpist played next to the entrance to a restaurant. We found out that we had just missed tea time. But the restaurant that looks out on Lake Louise was still taking reservations. We signed up, waited a good hour, then were finally seated at a table next to a magnificent window overlooking the lake and the distant glacier. The meal was great but very expensive. The service was amazing and the waitress made us feel as if we were the most important people on earth. Well worth the hundred and fifty dollars for lunch. Check three. Thank You, God!

We don’t always have such perfect days. When they come along, as that day in Banff, we know it’s a gift from God. As if the Lord had said, “Today, I want you to have a day so perfect that you’ll recall it for years to come. And each time you do, you’ll remember that it was a special gift from Me to you. Just because you’re my child and I love you.”

And sure enough, we came home and resumed our usual mixed-blessing days of work, errands, repairs, cooking, cleaning, etc. But each time we remember that 2012 August trip, Bruce and I go “Ahh.”

I’m glad that not every day is so perfect. It’d be easy to get spoiled!