Sunday May 5: Vero Beach
After saying hello to the alligator, we left the car at the entrance and walked into the resort lobby. It smelled SO good. Reminded me of
DCL. Ahhh I miss it. And it was just beautiful.
This next part is a little fuzzy. Remember the day before I worked all day (10 hr shift) and then left right away and I got maybe 3 hours of non-consecutive sleep. And I was pretty scared. Like the kind of scared where my mind is not clouded but my body is tense and all normal body functions go away if that makes sense.
I believe (I don't remember for sure how many there were) it was two police officers came into the lobby and asked DH if the car outside was his and he said yes and they asked him to come outside. I think either the police or DH told me to continue with the check in. Both the CM and i looked very alarmed but both trying to act normal and be happy for the kids. I don't remember anything the CM said but they did step away and brought each of my kids a stuffed animal fish. (Is this normal to give the kids a stuffed animal at check in?)
Here's some more information to know. DH is African American. But he hasn't been randomly stopped since we have lived in Virginia. He is always nervous to drive to places he doesn't know though. Like we won't stop for gas if a place looks too sketchy because he's afraid to be seen with a white wife and mixed kids.
Also a few weeks before we left one of his license plate was stolen but he had reported it to the DMV but hadn't received his new plates yet. So he had a license plate on the back but not the front. Since he had already talked to the DMV about it though we didn't think it would be an issue.
So anyway at some point I just told the CM that I think I need to go outside and make sure he's ok. And he was really nice about it and basically agreed. I just thought maybe it would be safer for him if the police saw his family and just humanized him. Honestly I wasn't sure the right thing to do because I didn't want the kids to see anything bad. So I very quickly had a serious talk with DD basically saying she was not allowed to let go of my hand and that she was not allowed to talk unless a grown up talked to her first. DS was only 2 and still nonverbal. So DD was then scared but listened to what I told her which was the important part.
And when I got outside there were like 6 police officers and I must have looked really scared because somebody told me that everything was ok. They said the Virginia DMV had sent alerts to other states that the license plate was stolen so they thought our car was stolen.
Again I don't remember the details but DH had some sort of paperwork to prove it was his car quickly. But then they had to figure out how we could continue to drive the car. They said we can't drive with the old plate but we can't drive with no plates.
At some point somebody from the resort came out to make sure DH was ok and told the police that they were on private property and I don't remember exactly what they said but it seemed like they were basically just saying make sure you treat him right. They then stayed with us for the rest of the time the police were there.
Eventually they figured out they could print something out to use like a temporary license plate and the Disney CM took the police somewhere to print it.
One of the police officers tried to make small talk with me and DD and asked us about our trip and Disney and eventually both DD and myself felt more at ease. That officer gave the kids a lot of stickers.
Once it was clear that everyone was ok and they were just doing logistics stuff I decided to go get coffees for me and DH. I felt like maybe me and the kids were more getting in the way than helping at that point. And I really did feel better that a CM stayed with him the whole time and it seemed clear that they had our interest first.
It was at this point that I was so so so happy that we did not stop to buy his sandals at some random places like
Walmart. I don't know if we were treated better because we were inside the gates of a fancy Disney resort but we were treated very well by everyone.
I got myself and DH a coffee and DD asked for some food items that I can't remember. The food was going to take some time so I said I'd be back for the food.
I brought DH his coffee and he was finishing up with the police. They told us to expect to get pulled over until we were back in Virginia but every time we do get pulled over to show them some paperwork that they gave us.
They were all very very respectful and nice. I was only freaked out because of stories I've heard from friends and things I've seen on TV plus knowing DH is afraid of things happening to us when we travel. DH grew up mostly in Okinawa and has just heard a lot of bad stories. But honestly I don't think we could have had a better experience.
But I was still scared of potentially getting pulled over and not having good interactions and having them in front of the kids.
But the police left and the CM told my husband where to park the car and I went back to the coffee place with the kids and DH was going to meet us there.



I really liked this place. They had games and bluey on TV and just out the window was the ocean. I was happy to be on vacation and really grateful that everyone was so nice to us.