This is a repost from the early days of my blog! With the house now on the market, I’ve been faced with the decision of where to go next. In my mind, there’s no question: the girls and I will buy another house within these few blocks bordered by Broadway, Lake, Beckham, and Fifth. I love my neighborhood. I love my neighbors, who have totally taken us under their wings during the past few difficult months. Though this house is for sale… we’re not going far. And if you know someone who wants to live in my beautiful neighborhood as well, send ’em my way…

What is the Azalea Trail, you ask? Click here to find out more! Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to live in this neighborhood! In elementary school, my friend Chrystene lived in the house across the street from this very house, and we spent lots of hours playing in the ‘creek’ running parallel to Belmont street. I remember us stealing her brother’s jam box and taking it up into the big tree in the front yard, that I can see from my kitchen window, and blaring his Def Leppard tape from the treetops.

In middle school, I was a tour guide for a home on College Street, as part of Ms. Scrugg’s Junior Historians at Moore Middle School, and I stood on the front porch and read the history of that house, voice quavering, from an index card to groups of tourists.

In High School, I was an Azalea Belle. Funny, I know! I can vividly remember *FREEZING* to death, standing with my friend Stephanie in the front yard of a house on Lindsey Lane (the house that now belongs to the Boozers), in spite of wearing long johns underneath that ridiculous foofy dress, as tourists snapped our pictures. I wish I HAD a picture of me in that get-up…I might actually post it here.

As a grown-up, this is the only neighborhood we’ve lived in, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else! I love these old houses, the sense of history, the flowers, the TOUR…. In case you wondered.