-- Walk the Boardwalk. Hit the boards to breathe in the salt air. Rent bikes and take a spin between 6 and 10 a.m., when it's legal. -- Ride in a Boardwalk rolling chair. The tradition dates to 1880, when an enterprising hardware store owner began renting out wheelchairs. Soon, he began offering chairs seating two or more people. Propelled by a single person's push power at the rear, the chairs may not be as romantic as a carriage ride or as exotic as a rickshaw ride. But the kids will remember the experience that's just $5 to ride five blocks. -- Shop for salt water taffy. It's an Atlantic City tradition that began in the late 1880s with a tale about an enterprising young merchant who discovered his entire stock of taffy had been soaked by waves of ocean water during a bad storm and began calling it 'salt water taffy.' But should you buy James' 37 flavors 'cut to fit the mouth' or Fralinger's 16 flavors with 'sea air and sunshine sealed in every box'? Taste both, then let the kids create their own assortments of favorite flavors. Descendants of the James family now own both brands but meticulously stick to the original recipes, so the two kinds of taffy still have different tastes and textures. Fralinger's Salt Water Taffy, old-timiest of the shops on the Boardwalk, is the one at front of Bally's Park Place, (609) 345-2177, www.fralingers.com. James' Salt Water Taffy, 1519 The Boardwalk, (609) 344-1519, www.jamescandy.com or www.seashoretaffy.com. -- Visit the Atlantic City Historical Museum. Located at Garden Pier, it's free and contains an informative video telling the story of Atlantic City's evolution. It includes colorful moments such as when a diving horse's exploits amazed visitors and how visitors themselves climbed into a diving bell for an experience of their own. Here, you'll also find the stories of all things Atlantic City, from Miss America and Monopoly to Mr. Peanut, who was the city's unofficial ambassador for 70 years. Atlantic City Historical Museum, Garden Pier, www.acmuseum.org, (609) 347-5837. -- Sample a special taste of Atlantic City from White House Sub Shop. Call in a lunch-time takeout order no later than 10 a.m. and preferably closer to 7 a.m. if you want to have hope of getting your sandwiches at noon. They're the makings of a great picnic lunch on the beach or Boardwalk. Want to eat inside? Be prepared to wait 30 minutes or longer at peak times. But packing into a booth, watching the crew build blockbuster sandwiches (as many as 1,000 per day) and ogling photos of celebrities who've downed White House subs can be part of the fun. White House Sub Shop, 2301 Arctic Ave. (at Mississippi Avenue), (609) 345-8599. -- Tour Absecon Lighthouse. Its 228 stairs will help everyone work off those sandwiches. The 152-year-old structure is the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey and the third-tallest in the United States. Although the lighthouse today stands several blocks from the shoreline, its years at the beach avoided many tragedies in Absecon Inlet, which had earned the nickname 'Graveyard Inlet.' At least 64 oceangoing vessels were lost in the decade before its guiding light went on. Absecon Lighthouse, 31 S. Rhode Island Ave., www.abseconlighthouse.org, (609) 449-1360. -- Go dolphin-watching. You may spot the fin of a dolphin or two from the beach. But taking a two-hour trip with Captain Jeff George of Atlantic City Cruises dramatically increases your odds of getting a closer look at these fascinating mammals. George sails out of Gardner's Basin at 1 p.m. daily during the summer. He reports a 95 percent success rate this season for dolphin sightings. Dolphins swim around and under the boat, while he provides a running narrative about their habits and lifestyles. 'We see mostly Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins who winter off the coast near the Carolina-Georgia border and return here, where they were born, each summer. My crew and I can identify them by the shape, color, scars and markings on their fins,' he notes. But what if you don't see any dolphins on your cruise? 'You'll get a free ticket to ride with us again,' George says. Atlantic City Cruises, dolphin watching, 800 N. New Hampshire Ave., daily through Sept. 20, www.atlanticcitycrui! ses.com, (609) 347-7600. -- Stroll through the Atlantic City Aquarium. It's the other must-see at Gardner's Basin waterfront park. This compact, but exhibit-filled, aquarium offers interactive experiences such as questioning the diver who feeds cownose rays, swims with nurse sharks and dives with dogfish in the tank that's filled with fish of the mid-Atlantic region. Other high points are observing and touching the prehistoric-looking horseshoe crabs as well as helping to feed bits of fish to sharks and rays in another touch tank. Atlantic City Aquarium, end of New Hampshire Avenue at Gardner's Basin waterfront park, www.acaquarium.com, (609) 348-2880. -- Check out the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. Directed by Robert Schoelkopf and Sheila Dean, the center in Brigantine, along the coast about four miles north of the aquarium, rescues seals, whales, turtles and dolphins. Since its founding in 1978, staff and volunteers have answered 3,450 stranding calls. Visitors can tour its small education center and museum, peer into a tank filled with fish found along the coast and watch a delayed-view television monitor showing the center's patients while they recuperate. Marine Mammal Stranding Center, 3625 Brigantine Blvd., Brigantine, www.marinemammalstrandingcenter.org, (609) 266-0538. -- Visit Lucy. The world's largest elephant, a national historic landmark, is in Margate, along the coast about seven miles south of Gardner's Basin. Although the wooden elephant is getting a new paint job, she'll be gussied up and ready to party for her 128th birthday celebration July 18 and 19. The huge elephant, billed as 'the oldest roadside attraction in America,' was constructed by shipbuilders. To get the full experience of visiting 65-foot-tall Lucy, (you'll need to climb a spiral staircase inside Lucy's leg to reach her stomach, then peer through her eyes and finally climb up into the howda (the 'riding carriage') on her back. The kids can say they passed through an elephant's stomach and came out alive! Lucy the Margate Elephant, 9200 Atlantic Ave. at Decatur Avenue, Margate, www.lucytheelephant.org, (609) 823-6473. 