My First Pilgrimage

As promised, I went to Macy's on 34th Street for my first crowd-practice session.

I made my way to the 8th floor and saw this promising sign:

But I have to tell you, the Santa line was thin:

I found two possible explanations. First, there was evidence that this Santa was a fake. He apparently did not come by sleigh:

And second, once you got to the fourth or fifth floor, you had to ascend by escalators that were built in the Middle Ages (borrowed from the Cloisters, I think). They were cool, but scary as hell. Nobody would ride them:

So, where were the crowds? Two places. Half were on the first floor, which was beginning to look a lot like Filene's Basement:

The rest were in line here (4th floor, cio!):