Walking Tour

I offer this advice to those who undertake a new walking tour of old Lauraville: Wear sensible shoes, take a map along and be prepared to learn stuff you never knew before. For starters, this Northeast Baltimore neighborhood is larger than I had imagined. It also has far more history than I was prepared to digest in the time I spent there. Lauraville is truly a city neighborhood of secrets waiting to be discovered. I learned it still has a building that served as a one-room schoolhouse dating from Lauraville's time as a Baltimore County village.

I offer this advice to those who undertake a new walking tour of old Lauraville: Wear sensible shoes, take a map along and be prepared to learn stuff you never knew before. For starters, this Northeast Baltimore neighborhood is larger than I had imagined. It also has far more history than I was prepared to digest in the time I spent there. Lauraville is truly a city neighborhood of secrets waiting to be discovered. I learned it still has a building that served as a one-room schoolhouse dating from Lauraville's time as a Baltimore County village.

No rain date is planned, they're serving free cider instead of pure corn whiskey, and organizers have high hopes for Westminster's first Business History Walking Tour tomorrow.To promote Main Street merchants, Greater Westminster Development Corp. devised the attraction featuring historic buildings and businesses in the heart of town.The self-guided tours run from at 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., beginning at the Historical Society of Carroll County at 210 E. Main St. -- the first of 12 buildings featured on the walk.

Time for spring cleaning, dear readers, The Havre de Grace department of public works sponsors clean-up days April 20 and 27 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Havre de Grace Community Center, 100 Lagaret Lane for Havre de Grace residents. For details, contact city hall, 410-939-1800. Celebrate Earth Day, Saturday, April 20, at the annual river sweep along the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Tydings Park to the Susquehanna Museum at the Lock House. For details, phone 410-939-7644 or 410-808-6118 or email peter.d.green@att.net or visit http://www.hitourtrails.com . Earth Day is April 22. The American Legion Post 47, 501 St. John Street, Havre de Grace, hosts chicken and ribs night with live music, April 20, 6-10 p.m. Tickets available for $15 by calling Josh, 410-939-0234.

Canine benefit -- Paws Pet Boutique will present the sixth annual Happy Tails Day from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at 64 State Circle, Annapolis. It will include a raffle, walking tour, silent auction, refreshments, and animal care information. Proceeds will benefit Golden Retriever Rescue, Education and Training. Tickets for the walking tour are $14 for adults, $4 for children ages 3 to 11 and free for accompanied dogs and children younger than 2. Registration is recommended. 410-263-8683 or www.pawspet boutique.

GREAT FIRE, NICE WALKStarted by a carelessly discarded cigarette, the Great Fire of 1904 raged for two days and destroyed 140 acres of downtown Baltimore. Despite all the destruction, not a life was lost. Take a walking tour of the 1904 fire district on the weekend of its anniversary -- from noon to 1:15 p.m. today, tomorrow or Sunday.Sponsored by the Baltimore City Life Museums, the tour begins at the Baltimore Arena, Hopkins Place and Baltimore Street entrance. The tour traces the fire's path from Redwood and Hopkins east to the Jones Falls.

The Hardy County Heritage Weekend will attract visitors to West Virginia's eastern panhandle next weekend for two days of house tours, apple-butter demonstrations, train rides, crafts, an art show and an antique-car display.Eighteen historic homes and buildings will be open for tour, ranging from log structures to historic plantation manors. The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in the areas of Moorefield, Old Fields/Purgitsville, Wardensville, and Lost River/Mathias Area.

When tourists come to eat seafood or stroll by the water in Annapolis, they often miss the history surrounding them. Perhaps Walter Cronkite will change that.The former CBS anchorman, a longtime Chesapeake Bay sailor, has taped a 1 1/2 -hour walking tour through the city. Simple plaques mark the Georgian architecture, but visitors usually don't get to hear the colorful stories of the shipbuilders, tavern owners and national leaders who lived in Maryland's Colonial capital.The Historic Annapolis Foundation has wanted to offer visitors who miss its group tours a self-guided version for some time, said Linnell R. Bowen, director of development for the nonprofit organization.

Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley. (Crown, 112 pages, $16) This is the most recent "Crown Journey" -- little commissioned literary travel books. Declaring from the outset that he is no historian, Buckley lards and bastes his book with bits of fanciful almost-history: Congress ruled that the capital was to be in Princeton, but the pols were rejected when they insisted on being admitted to the "elite eating clubs." But mainly it is a punctilious relating of well-borrowed facts, observations -- delivered with gracious attributions, especially to well-established Washington walking-tour guides and talking sources.

Here come the birds The lowdown -- See the first signs of spring by taking a Migration Walk at Cylburn Arboretum. Walkers will see resident and migrant birds. Open to beginner and experienced birders. Participants should bring binoculars and wear weather-appropriate clothing. The walking tour departs from the mansion's front porch. If you go -- The Spring Migration Walk is Sunday at Cylburn Arboretum, 4915 Greenspring Ave. It begins at 8:30 a.m. Free. Call 410-367-2217 for more information.

Columbia's core, which is in the early stages of redevelopment, is the territory for a trio of walking tours organized by the Columbia Association's Columbia Archives. The WalkAlong event will take place Saturday, May 4, and participants can choose one of three routes. The guided tours, which last about two hours, will depart from the Columbia Archives (at 10227 Wincopin Circle) at 10 a.m. One tour will focus on the architecture of Frank Gehry, including Merriweather Post Pavilion and the former Rouse Co. headquarters.

From the dentils that punctuate the roofline to the wide staircase leading upstairs, the home of Gretchen and A. Denis Clift is a classic. And it's in an Annapolis community where architecture is distinctive, gardens are gracious and century-old trees shade winding streets. The house offers views of the Severn River through original windows of rippled glass and looks over sections of Wardour. Even though the neighborhood is in the city of Annapolis, it feels anything but urban.

Clifford Elmer Hughes Jr., a retired manager who learned to play the piano at 83 and wrote his autobiography three years later, died Jan. 14 of pulmonary fibrosis at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime Ellicott City resident was 89. Mr. Hughes was born at home in Baltimore on South Macon Street and raised in Highlandtown. After graduating in 1941 from City College, he went to work as a draftsman at Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point plant. He studied marine design at the Maryland Institute College of Art and also at the Johns Hopkins University's McCoy College.

After a weekend of Halloween pranks and shenanigans, you're probably afraid of the dark. But that'll wear off by Friday, just in time for the 19th annual Annapolis by Candlelight Tour. The event, organized by the Historic Annapolis Foundation, is a self-guided walking tour of privately owned homes and historic inns. The plan: Pick up your button and program at the Historic Annapolis Museum (99 Main St.) and be prepared to spend about two hours touring homes on Duke of Gloucester, Market and Charles streets in the historic district.

Kids come with stuff. Ever wonder where families in the slim and slimmer rowhouses of Federal Hill put all that stuff? You can find out Saturday on the first-ever Tour of Kids' Spaces, a walking tour of eight to 10 homes in the historic neighborhood. Proceeds from the $25 tickets ($30 on Saturday) will benefit the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance, a very young organization with an exploding membership of city residents committed to making city life kid-friendly and family-friendly John Bolster has been living in the community since 1993 and renovated three homes for his wife and now three children.

TRENDS Get ready for some mom time Last year it was "mancations." Next year it could be "seniorcations." But, for this year, the "cation" that the travel industry hopes will catch on is the "momcation." Billed as "the revenge sequel" to male-bonding "mancations," the "momcation" targets mothers seeking a break from screaming infants and frustrating adolescents. According to Josh Lesnick, founder of the Web site I'm in!.com (imin.com), groups of women with names such as the Hard Working Moms, the Book Club Babes and the Runaway Mamas, are using the site to plan getaway trips.

Field of ScreamsThe 1999 Field of Screams opens tomorrow in Lancaster, Pa. If you dare take the Haunted Hayride, you will meet Fester, the Field of Screams caretaker, as he clings to his life support system. Feel your pulse rise as you try to escape the executioner. If you survive the hayride, the Den of Darkness Horror Barn, with dark halls and ghost-infested passageways, will weaken even the strongest of souls. There's also a gift shop, he Scream Shop," and a host of food vendors.The attraction is open through Oct. 31, immediately off the Mountville exit of Route 30. Hours are 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

The Blackbirds The lowdown -- Starting Saturday, is your first chance to see the Baltimore Blackbirds indoor football team at 1st Mariner Arena. The team, a member of the American Indoor Football Association, will play five games at the arena through June. They meet the Carolina Speed tomorrow night. If you go -- The game starts at 7 p.m. Ticket prices vary. The arena is at 201 W. Baltimore St. Call 410-547-SEAT or go to tick etmaster.com. On the farm The lowdown -- Clark's Elioak Farm is open for business starting Saturday for hayrides and pony rides and a petting zoo. Feed horses, ducks, chickens, bunnies and turtles.