Joan M. Durante Community Park

Joan M. Durante Community Park, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

After driving north from St. Armands Key, there is a bridge to Longboat Key. Longboat Key also hosts a town by the same name, which is mostly exclusive gated communities. On the Sarasota Bay side of the key is a park called Joan M. Durante Community Park. I stopped in for a walk around and wasn't disappointed!

The views of Sarasota Bay were really nice. There is also a boardwalk that takes visitors through a mangrove forest. I saw lots of horseshoe crab shells and there were hermit crabs scurrying into holes everywhere I looked.



I kept seeing a very interesting looking spider so I took a few pictures of it. When I posted them on Flickr, another member commented and told me that it is a type of crab spider.



There were a lot of people walking their dogs. The park also offered pick-up bags at the start of the trails to help dog owners clean up after their four-legged friends. The drinking fountain even featured a little doggie-sidecar!



After leaving the park, I went off searching for a beach. I wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico up close!