Walking Tour

Stamp show See unusual, rare and exotic stamps at the annual "Balpex" stamp show tomorrow through Sunday at the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn. The show, sponsored by the Baltimore Philatelic Society, includes more than 60 dealers from around the world. Visitors can buy or trade stamps, look over exhibits, attend seminars and lectures and even have their stamps evaluated for free by members of philatelic clubs. This year, philatelic organizations at the event will include the German Philatelic Society, the George Washington Masonic Club, the Souvenir Card Collectors Society and the Scandinavian Collectors Club.

An article in Monday's Carroll County section about a Halloween walking tour of historic sites in Westminster should have credited Jesse Glass' book, "Ghosts and Legends of Carroll County, Maryland," for much of the material presented by the county Office of Tourism.* The Sun regrets the error.On a guided tour of Westminster, visitors may meet locals from yesteryear.The Carroll County Office of Tourism has mapped out a Ghost Walk, with stops at eight well-known haunts.The details of the town's most popular haunts are all in "Ghost Walk," which promises tourists "a spirited self-guided walking tour of Westminster."

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.

So you thought Fells Point was all about bars, boats and "Homicide," the television series.Well, yes. It is about all those things, but it seems there is more to the historic Baltimore waterfront neighborhood. The community has also played host to the movies "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Avalon" and can be seen in the not-yet-released movie "Washington Square."This being such a Hollywood-fixated country, why isn't someone taking advantage of Fells Point's movie connection? Somebody is.This weekend, weather permitting, the curtain goes up on "Hollywood on the Harbor."

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is sponsoring a walking tour of Upper Marlboro Sept. 24 and Oct. 1.The town was founded in 1706 and established as the county seat of Prince George's County in 1719. The walks begin with a tour of Darnall's Chance, an 18th-century property at 14800 Gov. Oden Bowie Drive, and continues past other 18th- and 19th-century residences, shops, churches, cemeteries and the courthouse. The cost is $3 for adults, and $2 for seniors and students.

To a 9-year-old, John Paul Jones' crypt can be spooky place, the State House's stairway to nowhere can be an intriguing mystery and a glimpse of the governor a thrill to remember.These warm spring days, fourth-graders from all over the state are taking in the sights of Annapolis. Yellow school buses roll down U.S. 50 carrying chattering children with brown bag lunches. Many start their visit with a boat ride in the Annapolis Harbor then a walking tour led by guides in Colonial garb.The traditional class trip to Annapolis gives the state's schoolchildren the chance to see the homes and workplaces of the historic figures they've read about.

ITALIAN FESTIVAL Feast on fried dough, ravioli, porchetta, garlic bread, cannoli and calzone. Play bingo, browse arts-and-crafts exhibits and listen to renditions of "O Solo Mio" at the Italian Festival this weekend on the streets surrounding St. Leo's Catholic Church in the heart of Little Italy. The event, held in honor of St. Gabriel, also features a bocce tournament beginning at 8 a.m. Sunday at the Little Italy Bocce Field, 902-904 Stiles St. The festival starts at noon Saturday and continues with a Mass at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

On her 21st visit to the United States, and her second in as many years to Maryland, British travel writer and photographer Angela Humphery quickly noticed the differences and similarities between the two countries.A free-lance writer who travels the world in search of stories, Ms. Humphery was visiting Maryland for a week at the invitation of the Maryland Office on Tourism.On a walking tour of the Court Street area of Westminster last week with tour guide Mary Lou Dewey, Ms. Humphery declared that an old picture she had seen of the Main Court Inn on Main Street "looked a darn sight better than what's there now."

Bernadette Michaels, consultant from Tame the Clutter, will offer tips for organizing the home at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Savage branch library, 9525 Durness Lane. Registration is required. The library will offer a High School Flashback Movie Night with a high school-themed movie (the title is to be announced) at 6:30 p.m. May 9. Registration is to begin Tuesday. The library's Non-Fiction Book Club will discuss Fermat's Last Theorem by Amir D. Aczel, at 7 p.m. May 17. Registration is not needed.

This town is made for walking.Annapolis, with its red brick-paved streets that wind through neighborhoods of historic homes and lush gardens, is named one of the most "walkable" cities in the country in the August issue of Walking magazine.And it's a good thing city planners made travel by foot easy, locals and tourists say, because finding parking in the city can be frustrating."I'll fight the parking just to come down here and walk around," said Pixie Pikus as she tooled around City Dock with her 7-month-old son, Alec, tucked comfortably in his stroller.