It looks like a giant TV screen showing images of kids playing on water slides.

This is the Kalahari Resort just outside Sandusky, Ohio. On Thursday afternoon, the giant marquee read, "Welcome, Fredericksburg, Va." as four City Council members and 10 city staff members arrived for a two-day visit to the resort that has plans to build in Celebrate Virginia.

The two vans of city officials drove down a snow-lined driveway to be greeted by bellmen clad in safari gear. The hotel lobby they entered was like a busy intersection, where families and kids wearing swimsuits and flip-flops crossed paths with hotel staff.

African decor was everywhere, and wildlife experts let tourists pet a baby lion and kangaroo in one corner.

The African theme runs throughout the 884-room resort and 95,000-square-foot conference center. But it's not there to distract you from noticing shortcomings in service and quality.

Rooms here are outfitted with flat-screen televisions. Suites have full-size kitchen appliances. It's hard to find food on Sandusky's chain-heavy U.S. 250 corridor that rivals the creations of the chefs at Kalahari.

This is a nice hotel, not some dump dressed up with bamboo mats and pictures of elephants.

The conference center draws a steady flow of state associations, corporate clients and religious groups. This year, they'll host groups from Bristol Myers Squibb, Edward Jones, Pfizer and others.

From the lobby, windows look out onto the newly expanded, 173,000-square-foot indoor water park, which Kalahari says is the largest in the country.

While temperatures in Sandusky hover in the teens and lower 20s this time of year, the air inside the water park is in the 80s and 90s.

But don't think being inside will keep you from getting a suntan. The new addition has a high-tech roofing system that lets in enough UV light to give you some color.

Kalahari President Todd Nelson said he plans to install this same kind of roof in the resort he plans for Fredericksburg.