Captain Ed Sadler is a proud 95 year old clam digger. This is the term City Islanders use to refer to people who were born and raised on the island. However, there are few like Mr. Sadler, who was born and still lives in the same house his family built here. Mr. Sadler recalls when gas was pumped by hand and cost only pennies.

City Island is less than a mile from Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and since it has only a few thousand residents, most are mussel suckers, but they still embrace the charm of a 100 year old New England village.

Turtle Cove is the inlet from Eastchester Bay, and it is being restored by the Parks Department as part of the ongoing Pelham Bay Park project. The main difference is a footbridge that is now part of a Siwanoy hiking trail to preserve plants and animals.

THE Secret Garden offers a stroll through the New York Botanical Garden, which has two daily tours throughout its 250 acres. Take an in-depth look at places like the Perennial Garden, Conservatory, and old-growth forest. Free with admission. 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. New York Botanical Garden, 200th St. and Kazimiroff Blvd., Bronx. (718) 817-8700.

The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation says that beaches will open to the public on Saturday, May 28, with lifeguards on duty daily, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Swimming is prohibited at all other times. Beaches will remain open through Labor Day weekend.

Meanwhile, Orchard Beach is celebrating its 75th anniversary as the Riviera of the Bronx. In 1936, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses transformed a small beach colony on Rodman’s Neck to a 1.1-mile-long crescent of fine white sand. This past winter, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, completed work on the $13 million Orchard Beach Shoreline Protection Project. The Corps placed approximately 268,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach to further protect it against tides, winds, waves and storms.