The aquarium provides a whole new experience for walkers. Eleanor was looking for a truly hands-on connection

Everyone searching for their personal penguin

Eleanor was generally oblivious to the giant sea turtle floating just overhead

The traditional tropical fish pose, now a walk-up destination

A new sibling experience as well

Chatting up the locals

With a portion of the railings on the jungle upper level under construction, there was a certain unfamiliarity and anxiety to walking clockwise

Our little monkey

“DAT!”

Starting with a sprint…

…eventually ended with a whiny surrender.

With the jungle restaurant unusually understocked, this non-hotdog-or-cheeseburger-eating group pursued extraordinary means. On the car ride west, mom wielded the immense power of child messaging: by introducing the word “meatball” to Desmond’s vernacular, he was compelled to repeat the word over and over to master pronunciation. Mom had effectively created a cheering squad that ultimately resulted in dad driving to Meatball, a newer-ish restaurant in the Blackstone neighborhood near home. Score one for mom.

Desmond showing surprising variety by requesting something other than Star Wars, though a mandatory “mix it up” edict has been recently established