It's Atlanta. So Atlanta.

The Georgia Aquarium is the biggest thing to hit downtown since the Olympics. And it comes wrapped in something this city can never resist: bragging rights.

John Spink/AJC (ENLARGE)
Cameron Kearns, 4, of Powder Springs is held spellbound as a hammerhead shark cruises by in the Ocean Voyager exhibit. The 100,000 animals in the aquarium represent 500 species.
MOST POPULAR STORIES New arrests likely in Fla. adoptive couple slaying Toddler found wandering street alone Reed aims to rejuvenate Christian conservatives Motorist dies in drive over edge of Grand Canyon Three arrested for attempted robbery near Tech
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR

It has the tallest viewing window in the country and the only captive whale sharks in North America. It is — repeat after me — the world's largest aquarium.

And, boy howdy, is it flashy. Other aquariums turn down the lights and prattle on about the mysteries of the deep. The Georgia Aquarium is a bright, noisy and thrilling theme park duded up with set designs that would make Nemo feel right at home.

It's also an amazing gift to the city, a place filled with wonders, and a cultural institution that you'll want to visit time and again.

Getting inside, well, that's a little tricky.

In the Atlanta tradition, parking is tough. Our party waited forever to enter the garage via the Luckie Street entrance only to be redirected to another line into the Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard entrance.

Entering by foot is no easier. A police barricade prevents you from crossing the street from Centennial Olympic Park. Once you do find the path, good luck. After everything the city of Atlanta has done for this aquarium, they have yet to finish painting crosswalks.

Even with a time slotted for your visit, you likely will have to wait in line at the front doors. Staffers are sweet and helpful, but we came across more than one who had trouble with computers, directions and crowd control. Be patient, and chalk it up to opening kinks.

Once inside, you enter the atrium (can someone turn down the music a smidge?) and decide which of the five exhibits (each sporting prominent corporate logos) to visit first. This is the easy part; despite bottlenecks here and there, you won't wait.

The exhibit sets — plastic snow crusting the entrance to Cold Water Quest; a shrimp trawler in Georgia Explorer — give off a faint whiff of cheese, but they do help you process the vast scale and scope of this fish tank. If you're visiting with kids, you'll appreciate every aspect of the design. How much better it is to take in five separate exhibits than being sent on a forced march through the whole caboodle.

One caveat: A visit with kids takes serious time. I was startled to realize that much of the first two hours inside with my kids (see accompanying article) was spent getting in and out of the "4-D" movie, in and out of Cafe Aquaria, in and out of the restrooms. After all that time, the only actual exhibit we had seen was Ocean Voyager. Family priorities are not always the most ichthyologically minded.

Parents will want to set aside time and a little extra money to catch the "4-D" movie upstairs — a 3-D cartoon starring mascot Deepo with live effects. There are a couple of cringe moments in it. One, when Billy the fish comments that the ocean is "your [pause for comic effect] home, Deepo." Let's consign that joke to Aisle 3, nuts and bolts.

Then, Deepo leads Billy to meet the "queen of soul." Or is it "queen of sole"? Whatever, but just please don't make the bad Aretha Franklin impersonator a walrus. Not to worry. Before long a svelte sea turtle swims onto the screen to lead her chorines through a toe-tapping version of "Think" — the best musical number of the show.

Cafe Aquaria, with its open floor plan and distinct food stations, is an easy place to navigate. The restaurant gets props for offering healthy choices (fresh fruit, yogurt parfait), decent mini-pizzas and seriously good coffee.

And then there are the five exhibits. Plan extra time for Cold Water Quest — an absolute wonder, with beluga whales, leafy sea dragons, impossibly cute sea otters and a penguin exhibit with a gopher hole that lets you get face-to-face (through acrylic) with them. The penguins look thoroughly entertained.

Of course you will go to visit the whale sharks, Ralph and Norton, in Ocean Voyager. Get ready for one of the great moments of your life when you turn a corner and see the big viewing window for the first time.

This is Atlanta?

Wow.