The view of "the lower mainland" of BC was taken by my sister on one of her local weekend hikes. The glacial fjord, first explored in 1792, is called Indian Arm; Vancouver, first settled in 1862, is in the distance towards the right, and beyond it are the mountains of southern Vancouver Island. The hill in the centre distance is Burnaby Mountain, at the top of which is Simon Fraser University, opened in 1965 - I was one of the 2,500 "charter students", walking through muddy parking lots (everyone drove to "school" in those days) to unfinished buildings ... ah, those were the days, and don't these photos bring it all back ...
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| 10 months before opening -from the back: swimming pool, concourse with library to right, academic quadrangle [seminar rooms] with lecture rooms and laboratories to its left |
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| SFU 1965-6, on a day with few cars in the parking lots (at right), no rain, and the North Shore mountains beyond |
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| Most if not all student drove up to SFU - the approach road revealed a latter-day Acropolis, but don't be fooled, there was forest everywhere |
Sigh - I had developed a special love of Canada starting with a family vacation when I was in junior high and accelerating with some of the history courses I took while at Whitworth College in eastern Washington state. I didn't know at the time that Simon Fraser University was so new, not quit 10 years old when I got the idea that I wanted to spend a semester there so I could get the true Canadian take on its history, some of which like the expansion from east to west coast and the geography appeared to mirror that of my own country. Alas, I never made it happen and I STILL think I would like to spend a semester there.
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