Parade Route

WASHINGTON - Throughout the nation's capital yesterday, thousands of protesters took their turn to tell the new president of the United States what they thought of him. "Hail to the Thief" was the common refrain. So too was "illegitimate." Those waiting around the corner from the White House just booed as George W. Bush's presidential motorcade drove by. "We drowned out the sound of the band," said Lisa Smith, a 16-year-old student from Baltimore who joined the protesters gathered at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

WASHINGTON - A bone-chilling rain drenched spectators and participants at yesterday's inaugural parade, but the raw weather did little to dampen the enthusiasm of thousands who turned out to cheer or to jeer President Bush on Pennsylvania Avenue. John Ziemann, president of Baltimore's Marching Ravens, bubbled with excitement over the band's first appearance in an inaugural parade - and with the team set to play in Super Bowl XXXV next week. The band was invited to Richard M. Nixon's 1973 inaugural when it was the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, but team owner Robert Irsay would not pay its way, Ziemann said.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - They may have been on different sides 135 years ago, but Union and Confederate soldiers were united in their battle against scorching heat yesterday. With the temperature soaring past the 90-degree mark, wool-clad Civil War re-enactors marched about a one-mile stretch in Harrisburg's Grand Review 2000 parade. Officials shortened the parade route yesterday from about a mile and a half to help prevent heat-related problems. Marching re-enactors were bused to the start of the parade's viewing area instead of walking that point.

You won't have to wait until post time to get into the Preakness spirit. Starting tomorrow, giddyap for nine days of hot-air balloon and schooner races, marching bands and floats, music, spectacular fireworks and more. It's Preakness Celebration, a festival stuffed with more than 30 events designed to lead you to the starting gate of the 125th running of the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown challenge. In its 12-year history, Preakness Celebration has grown from a modest effort to celebrate a horse race to a monumental event that attracts media attention and generates tourism.

St. Patty's Day ParadeCelebrate the luck of the Irish, Eastern Shore style, with a St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday in Ocean City. Cheer on more than 100 parade participants, including bands, step dancers, floats and marching units, which will follow the parade route along Coastal Highway to the 45th Street Village. Enjoy a festival with a variety of food and drink before and after the parade.The parade steps off at noon and proceeds along Coastal Highway, from 61st Street to the 45th Street Village.

NEW YORK -- With golden sunlight glazing the autumn leaves and a light breeze sweeping down Broadway, it seemed a great day to honor John Glenn, and for tens of thousands of people, it was.But for the longest time yesterday morning, almost the only people to show up to honor the 77-year-old astronaut, U.S. senator and undisputed American hero were the police, firefighters and sanitation workers assigned to handle the crowd.Once the parade got under way, crowds were -- by New York standards -- modest if not thin, with indications along the traditional parade route that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani might have overestimated the public's appetite for a third ticker-tape extravaganza since October.

Shaw memorialThere are three days left to view the dramatic installation of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' "Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment," the monumental sculpture depicting the first African-American infantry unit from the North to fight for the Union during the Civil War. The installation at the National Gallery of Art in Washington closes after visiting hours Sunday for about seven months while skylights are replaced...

A stretch of downtown Baltimore seemed to be painted fire-engine red yesterday as a parade of 100 historic fire-fighting vehicles kicked off the last day of the 14th annual Firehouse and Emergency Services Expo.Steam-powered fire engines, hand-drawn hose carts and wooden ladder trucks were among the vehicles dating to the 19th century that made their way along a milelong route from ZTC Key Highway and Covington Street to the Baltimore Convention Center, where the expo was held.In honor of the city's bicentennial, only vehicles at least 25 years old could participate in the parade, organizers said.

The Fourth of July just won't be the same in Towson this year.The route for one of the county's oldest parades -- unchanged for almost a century -- is being altered to bypass York Road during a $4.3 million sidewalk-and-roundabout construction project, shifting 150,000 visitors from the main thoroughfare.And the dazzling fireworks display held for decades at Luskin's appliance store -- an alternative for many residents to the crowded display at Oregon Ridge -- is in jeopardy of fizzling now that the company has closed.

There are few Baltimore traditions still going on today that began in 1936. The Thanksgiving Parade is one of them.Still, there have been some changes, and not just when it comes to the floats or participants.From 1936 to 1967, Baltimore's Thanksgiving Day Parade was actually held on Thanksgiving Day on Howard Street. But the parade was discontinued in 1967 because city officials believed people were more interested in watching live, televised extravaganzas on Thanksgiving Day rather than Baltimore's parade.