Yeah. You can choose to fast travel and skip it all (as many do). OR you can actually follow them as they walk to the monument and protect them. It's a LOONG journey - but totally fun. You even go through some metro tunnels.
Really? We never got that far. The Enclave encampment up the road from the Temple wiped out everyone
I promised I'd never escort anyone ever again after that. Not even Dad. He's worse, actually.
It helps if the people being escorted have a lot of confidence and are well equipped, a bit like the Caravans' armed escort (in FWE).
But Ghouls posted some good links. I'll check those out, too