Companions (of the non-time-travel sort)

While she is very protective of her solitude, she dearly loves spending time with her family and friends. What a treat is was when she was finally able to do just that with her brother and his beau; and familiarizing herself more and more with two great cities!

Their first adventure was off to the Capital (and not the one that people tend to not return from when playing games in it), and was a study in public transportation. From city bus to metro stops, their fare-cards were put to good use. Conversation was easy, despite whatever worries she may have had. And after a few mix ups in locating the Spy Museum (it was undercover...), they prowled their way through the declassified secrets of the cloak and dagger. Finding themselves ravenous afterwards, they followed some local advice and ate at a rustic/industrial little place called Pizza Pi.

Sun-dried tomato and pesto are officially the best pizza toppings. Ever.

Next came an abundance of walking and many sites:

Washington Monument

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Alex and Brittany being cute

Smithsonian Castle

A lovely little garden(would be a great reading place!)

....Weird animal heads that were too reminiscent of Doubt

The Capitol Building

Conscious of the fact that they'd be off on an even grander (and more strenuous) adventure the following day, they made their way back to their home port.

The next day was to conquer the Big Apple. Public buses to D.C. metro to Megabus to subway and they were stumbling around trying to smart phone their way to the WTC memorial. Which, after a bit of misdirection, they arrived at:

(oh look, the elusive sibling pair is spotted)

It was quite surreal to be at the WTC memorial park and to see the museum. Remembering that it had already been over a decade, and all of the lives that had been affected...

Once they'd left, they entertained hopes of riding a ferry to Lady Liberty herself, and so they headed for Brooklyn Park.

...and found a beautiful community garden...

...a lovely park/ restaurant courtyard...

...and discovered they were on the wrong side of the docks.... 

...but appreciated the view...

...despite the finding they'd missed the last ferry.

They headed back uptown, and experienced a little too much the packed-bodies/ towering buildings, and so ducked into a *cough*overpriced*cough* pub for a bite to eat (that wasn't as good as the fare from the day before~)

an oddly empty side walk

After dinner, they walked and browsed the souvenir shops until they reached Central Park.

realllllly bad shakey-hand shots w/o flash...

oh look! another...

After a pleasant stroll through the Park (and getting lost by coming out a different entrance/exit), they ventured back down the 20ish blocks to the general location where they would be picked up by Megabus to return home. And since they had a few hours to spare, and Alex is Alex, they passed the time in a 2nd story pub that was famed for its "99 beers on tap". Breaking her general rule (since he did have a point that they'd never had a drink together, even though she'd been of age for almost two years...) she let them order her a gin and tonic, and a hard cider following that (as well as delicious potato and cheese perogies) (interestingly enough, none of them were carded during any of this, not by the body-guard looking man by the entrance, or their two waitresses). When the time came, they made their way down the street to the bus stop to wait in line, and rode the night bus back home~