Walking Tour

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The river port that welcomed presidents, generals and occasional gangsters is offering 21st- century visitors a walk through its history. Havre de Grace, which overlooks the confluence of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, has lined up guides well-versed in local lore for its first-ever Haunted History and Ghost Walk Tour. "Don't take any spirits home with you," Mike Salmon cautioned a group of about 20 taking the mile walk through city streets on a brisk fall evening. As they set off from a tavern on Washington Street, a ghoulish character whispered, "I hope everyone makes it back all right."

Kids have always romped outside 1625 Shakespeare St. in Fells Point, making much ado about child's play. Little known to many who traverse the street is that Frederick Douglass, a slave who became an abolitionist and author, played there nearly two centuries ago. Bill Bauer has lived in the red-brick house near where Douglass and his friends played for 16 years. "I've never heard how he might have played on this street," he said. That and other facts about Douglass' early life are showcased on the Frederick Douglass Path to Freedom Walking Tour, a two-hour walk around Fells Point sponsored by Baltimore Black Heritage Tours.

Mary Winkelmeyer remembers a time when only a dozen cars a day would pass her coal and feed store on Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard. Most of her customers had a menagerie of animals - rabbits and chickens - in their back yards. That was 50 years ago. Imagine what Severna Park, now a bustling, upscale suburb, was like in 1906. The community will look back as far as it can today in one of the biggest celebrations of its centennial year. A vintage-fashion show and dance demonstration will span the decades and a 1947 radio show will be re-created with local residents playing Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.