Opening Scene: AARP's Vegas@50+

Just one block off the bustling Las Vegas Strip, Kathy Kavanaugh performs Pachelbel's Canon in D on her harp in the hallway of the Sands Expo Center. While she plucks out the delicate notes, thousands of AARP members pour in for the first day of the 2009 Vegas@50+ National Event.

"I became a member as soon as I turned 50," said Kavanaugh, a Las Vegas resident. "I just love everything about AARP."

Apparently, so do many others who came from far and wide. The line for the opening session extended as far as the eye could see and beyond, down a huge hall and expansive corridors—even though the program didn't start for another hour. The lucky ones arrived early.

A diverse crowd gathered to enter the exhibit hall. People were dressed in shorts, T-shirts, and running shoes; others in suit jackets and polished loafers. It was a demographer's dream: Asian, African-American, Hispanic and white, youngish to older.

More than 900 local volunteers, mobilized via AARP's Nevada state office, helped to run the annual event. Some 22,300 people swarmed into this nonstop neon city.

The excited but uninitiated Tim Garcia waited to see his first member event—the third for his wife, Mary Ellen. The Pasadena, Texas, couple stood about halfway down the line and couldn't even see the door. Amid the bustling crowds, Mary Ellen asked, "You're going to stand in line for an hour, Daddy?"

"Yep," hubby Tim answered.

She wandered off, saying she'd spend the time reading the special newspaper printed for the event and walking around trying to find her sister, who was somewhere amid the flowing, free-form spectacle.

It seemed some took the anticipation patiently, waiting in line, while other, perhaps more eager folks seized the early moments to connect amid the diverse crowd that might've only had AARP and their humanity in common.

Lines, Mimes, and the Elusive Vegas@50+ Pins

Outside the exhibit hall, Vegas@50+, I saw a sign: Danish and Coffee, $5. Oooh, wait—a Krispy Kreme concession! That couple I met from Kansas who were looking for donuts on the way over would be pleased!

And oh, I spotted a slinky mime from the Cirque du Soleil show, Kà, playing at the MGM Grand. "It was a great show," I heard several members remark, passing him.

The can't-miss mime, wearing a long, yellow tunic and 5-inch platform shoes, humorously followed members as they walked through the doors—"Finally!," they said—into the opening session.
 
Everywhere you heard, sotto voce, "Do you have any pins?" Those coveted keepsakes, a tradition at member events, were handed out all over the expo center at different booths and by staff members and volunteers walking the floor.

All day, there were lines, lines, lines. They moved quickly, and the mood was good-natured, but there was no escaping the queues for food and for the popular booths. There was a string of people waiting to get an autograph from the LPGA Hall-of-Famer Juli Inkster (Perfect name for an autograph signer, no?), who looked resplendent in a pink Genworth Financial ball cap.

Steps away, AARP members filed up to play on a virtual golf simulator sponsored by the Jamaica Tourist Board, where duffers (I hope they're not reading this!) whacked a real ball into a screen. The device showed them how their drives would fare on a golf hole.

At the Walgreen's booth, everyone seemed to want a free digital picture—the real you, in front of a fake Las Vegas backdrop. (Real? Fake? Sin City blurs those kinds of distinctions.) You could also get the seasonal flu shot ($24.99) and a pneumonia shot ($49.99). But there was an even longer line at the Walgreen's Wellness Bus, where members waited for free screenings of their blood pressure, cholesterol, bone density, blood glucose, body-mass index, and waist circumference.

And this crowd definitely didn't believe that print is dead: Another quickly paced queue moved toward  the cash register at the AARP "Books for Grownups" pavilion, where members snapped up AARP T-shirts, caps—and, yes, books.

Even the booth for the U.S. Census 2010 had a string attached, for good (and patient) citizens came to learn about their civic duties (while snapping up free notepads, pencils, and bags).

But why wouldn't there be lines? Some 22,300 people had registered so far, with another two days to go. People even lined up early in the morning to register for next year's AARP member event in Orlando, Fla., despite the fact that none of the talent for the concerts had been announced.

And among the 22,300 people, it was a safe bet that only two were bursting out of bikinis designed to look as if they were made of lettuce. Guarding the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals booth, a couple of semi-foliage-clad females urged passers-by to go vegetarian. This being Vegas, they were still wearing more than the cocktail waitresses at most of the casinos in town. But of course, this being Vegas, we weren't really supposed to tell you that.