POSTED: Tuesday, Jul. 08, 2008
After a 40 years of travel, Ferndale couple takes cruise to Asia
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closeIn the Ferndale living room of Dick and Vi Stone, a world map is dotted with red pushpins to show all the places they've been.
The crimson dots are spread far and wide, scattered across America, Europe, Australia and South America. Asia was relatively blank until the couple took a cruise this April.
"We've traveled quite a bit," says Dick, 84, a retired Ferndale High School teacher. "We had never been to Asia really, so it was a really revelatory trip."
The couple traveled for about three weeks on their East Asian cruise, stopping in ports in China, South Korea and Japan. Coming from the quiet, sprawled out style of life in Ferndale, what immediately struck the couple when they landed in Hong Kong was the sheer number of people.
"I am -- or was -- ignorant of Asia, the culture and the background, not ever having been there," Dick says. "You can't imagine getting off a ship and going somewhere where they say, ‘Our city has 7 million people.' We can't comprehend that."
In China, the couple took tours of Shanghai, Beijing and other areas. They tried dim sum, marveled at the immensity of the high-rise buildings and watched women embroider silk by hand at a silk institute.
"Beautiful, beautiful things they did there," Vi says.
From China, the couple cruised over to Pusan, South Korea, where they saw dancers and musicians and one tremendous fish market.
"Pike Place Market would look about this big in comparison," says Vi, 82, holding her pointer finger and thumb a pea's length apart.
From Korea, the cruise took the couple to Nagasaki, Japan. The couple visited the Peace Park, which commemorates the 1945 dropping of the atomic bomb.
"The Peace Park is beautiful," says Dick, who is a World War II veteran. "Beautiful flowers and a number of statues and memorials. It's well done."
Now that they're back at home, the couple is already thinking about where they'd like to go next. Perhaps somewhere where wild animals roam.
"We haven't been to Africa yet," Vi says with a hint of excitement. "We'll see. Time will tell."
Though she and Dick have been all over, an African safari would be an otherworldly adventure for a woman who grew up just down the road from where she now lives.
"When I first met her, her entire world experience was about 100 miles out of Ferndale," Dick says. "Since then, we've just been traveling."
The couple, who have been married for nearly 40 years, just can't get enough of the world and will surely add more pins to their map before they stop traveling.
"It's been a wonderful life, really," Vi says, "with the things we've done."
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