Slideshow - places to visit when in Atlanta

The first time I tried to visit the Varsity Restaurant (click to view website) was about 4 years ago when we were tourists in Atlanta. The sign inside the building says that there is seating for 650 people and when we walked in the door that Saturday afternoon, it looked as if all seats were taken and another 500 people were in line waiting to place an order. So obviously, we picked a bad day and time to go to the Varsity and turned around and walked back out. Now that we live only 30 minutes from downtown, we have been several times. Bob, one of my co-workers in Jacksonville who used to live in Atlanta, gave me a couple of gift certificates to enjoy the Varsity when I moved here two years ago. So we took some of our family to visit the world famous Varsity on New Year's Eve. (read more below slideshow)

On that same day we discovered another interesting place to visit, the Cyclorama,(read more) located near Grant Park. Inside this building there is a 360 degree hand painted Civil War canvas of the Battle of Atlanta, about three stories high. You are seated in the center of the room and the seats turn as you view the painting. We were not allowed to take pictures as the painting was done by hand with oil paint in the late 1800's. A Civil War general commissioned the painting to use while he was running for election. But he died before it was completed, and it was sold to a circus. After traveling around the country with a circus for many years, it ended up in Atlanta in the early 1900's when the circus closed down. The animals in the circus became the Atlanta Zoo and the building to display the painting was completed and named the Cyclorama.