diff --git a/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/README.md b/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/README.md
index 3249bce645..0d7abee659 100644
--- a/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/README.md
+++ b/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/README.md
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ AWS Gateway API controller is used in both clusters to manage the Kubernetes Gat
 
 See [here](https://aws-ia.github.io/terraform-aws-eks-blueprints/getting-started/#prerequisites) for the prerequisites and steps to deploy this pattern.
 
-1. set up the first cluster with its own VPC and the second 
+1. set up the first cluster with its own VPC and the second with an aurora postgres DB 
 
 ```shell
    # setting up the cluster1
@@ -33,32 +33,35 @@ See [here](https://aws-ia.github.io/terraform-aws-eks-blueprints/getting-started
    terraform apply
 ```
 
-2. Initialize the aurora postgress database for cluster2 vpc refer [here](./cluster2/postgres-setup/README.md)
+2. Initialize the aurora postgres database for cluster2 vpc refer [here](./cluster2/postgres-setup/README.md)
 3. Initialize Kubernetes secrets for cluster2
 
 ```shell
-cd cluster2
+# assuming you are already in the /cluster2 folder
 chmod +x secrets.sh && ./secrets.sh
 ```
 4. Deploy the kubernetes artefacts for cluster2 
 
+Deploy the datastore service to the EKS cluster in cluster2. This service fronts an Aurora PostgreSQL database and exposes REST API endpoints with path-prefixes /popular and /summary. To demonstrate canary shifting of traffic, deploy two versions of the datastore service to the cluster as shown below.
+
 ```shell
+# Apply Kubernetes set of manifests to both clusters that defines the GatewayClass and Gateway resources. The Gateway API controller then creates a Lattice service network with the same name, eks-lattice-network, as that of the Gateway resource if one doesn’t exist and attaches the VPCs to the service network.
 export CLUSTER_2=cluster2
 export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=$(aws configure get region)
 export AWS_ACCOUNT_NUMBER=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query "Account" --output text)
 
-aws eks update-kubeconfig --name $CLUSTER_2 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
-
 export CTX_CLUSTER_2=arn:aws:eks:$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION:${AWS_ACCOUNT_NUMBER}:cluster/$CLUSTER_2
 
 
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/gateway-lattice.yaml          # GatewayClass and Gateway
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/route-datastore-canary.yaml   # HTTPRoute and ClusterIP Services
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/datastore.yaml                # Deployment
+kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/gateway-lattice.yml          # GatewayClass and Gateway
+kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/route-datastore-canary.yml   # HTTPRoute and ClusterIP Services
+kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/datastore.yml                # Deployment
 ```
 
 5. Deploy the gateway lattice and the frontend service on cluster1
 
+The frontend service is configured to communicate with the datastore service in cluster1 using its custom domain name. 
+
 ```shell
 export CLUSTER_1=cluster1
 export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=$(aws configure get region)
@@ -69,13 +72,30 @@ aws eks update-kubeconfig --name $CLUSTER_1 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
 export CTX_CLUSTER_1=arn:aws:eks:$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION:${AWS_ACCOUNT_NUMBER}:cluster/$CLUSTER_1
 
 
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" -f ./$CLUSTER_1/gateway-lattice.yaml                          # GatewayClass and Gateway
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" -f ./$CLUSTER_1/frontend.yaml 
+kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" -f ./$CLUSTER_1/gateway-lattice.yml   # GatewayClass and Gateway
+kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" -f ./$CLUSTER_1/frontend.yml  # Frontend service
 ```
 
+## Testing if cluster1 service could talk to cluster2 service via VPC lattice 
+
+Shell commands below uses kubectl port-forward to forward outgoing traffic from a local port to the server port 3000 on one of the pods of the frontend service, which allows us to test this use case end-to-end without needing any load balancer.
+
+```shell
+POD=$(kubectl -context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" get pod -n apps -l app=frontend -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")
+kubectl -context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" -n apps port-forward ${POD} 80:3000 # Port Forwarding
+
+curl -X GET http://localhost/popular/category|jq
+curl -X GET http://localhost/summary|jq # you could retry the summary to see if you get a different results from different versions
+
+```
 
 ## Destroy
 
+To teardown and remove the resources created in this example:
+
 ```shell
-chmod +x ./destroy.sh && ./destroy.sh
+cd cluster1
+terraform apply -destroy -autoapprove
+cd ../cluster2
+terraform apply -destroy -autoapprove
 ```
diff --git a/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/aurora.tf b/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/aurora.tf
index 6509169846..8644d9e231 100644
--- a/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/aurora.tf
+++ b/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/aurora.tf
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ module "rds-aurora" {
   # insert the 5 required variables here
 
   password             = random_password.password.result
-  username = "admin"
+  username = "admins"
   private_subnet_ids_p = module.vpc.private_subnets
   private_subnet_ids_s = null
   region               = local.region
diff --git a/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/secrets.sh b/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/secrets.sh
index b4871c1b52..c6e598a161 100755
--- a/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/secrets.sh
+++ b/patterns/blueprint-vpc-lattice/cluster2/secrets.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ##!/bin/bash
-DBHOST="$(terraform output -raw postgres_host)"
+DBHOST="$(terraform output -json postgres_host | jq -r '.[0]')"
 DBUSER="$(terraform output -raw postgres_username)"
 DBPASSWORD="$(terraform output -raw postgres_password)"
 DBPORT="$(terraform output -raw postgres_port)"
@@ -12,15 +12,12 @@ AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=$(aws configure get region)
 AWS_ACCOUNT_NUMBER=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query "Account" --output text)
 
 
+aws eks update-kubeconfig --name $CLUSTER_2 --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
 export CTX_CLUSTER_2=arn:aws:eks:$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION:${AWS_ACCOUNT_NUMBER}:cluster/$CLUSTER_2
 
 
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_1}" -f ./$CLUSTER_1/gateway-lattice.yml
-kubectl apply --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" -f ./$CLUSTER_2/gateway-lattice.yml
-
-
-
 
+# setting up the cluster cluster secrets
 kubectl create --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" ns apps
 kubectl create --context="${CTX_CLUSTER_2}" secret generic postgres-credentials \
 --from-literal=POSTGRES_HOST="${DBHOST}" \