nostalgia wednesdays: sunset key

I can't remember how my mom first learned of Sunset Key (although my suspicion is via Coastal Living), but it is still one of my favorite family trips. I wasn't yet afraid of flying (important for the small plane required to get you to nearby Key West), and even though I think we ended up having to spend an unexpected night in Orlando or something like that, I don't remember any sort of family tiffs (or anything else that puts a damper on vacation). 


Instead, we spent a really great few days on a little island right off of Key West called Sunset Key. Half of the island is private homes that are just waiting to be featured on some sort of "Cribs" or "Real Housewives" type episodes. The other half is a Starwood resort made up of little villas, a restaurant or two, a great pool area, a private beach, and a boat to get you to and from Key West. 

We stayed on the latter half, but it was still amazingly luxe by my ten-year-old standards. My sister and I were still young enough to be fairly unconcerned with how we looked in bathing suits (even sporting the occasional one piece, the horror), and spent days on end in the pool trying to master standing upright on foam pool mats. The villa we stayed in was gorgeous, and if I remember properly, located steps from the beach, much like this beauty: 

In my mind, we took this vacation in the dead of winter (or as much of a "dead of winter" as you can claim in North Carolina), which is why I find myself particularly nostalgic about that trip now. We've been lucky to have a pretty mild winter here in DC so far, but as of Tuesday, the season remembered it was supposed to be battering us with frigid temps and blustery wind. Yet another reason I'm super pumped for 2012 so far...


Anyways I am ready for a trip to someplace tropical, and I'd love to go with my family. I don't know about my sister, but I absolutely took family trips for granted when we were little. We were never burdened with trying to work those trips in to our budgets or schedules. No, Mom would get a lead on a great place, and off we'd go during a little break from school. Now, as my sister and I are learning what it's like to be young, broke, and away from home, I miss that time together even more.  


My Mom's birthday is in February, and while we were all together for Christmas, my sister and I tried to sell the idea of a quick little tropical getaway to celebrate. This time, though, we're leaving the one piece bathing suits at home


ps-all Sunset Key photos (except that first one) are from the Starwood site 
pps-I finally can eat some normal, non-bland, non-liquid food again after my heinous brush with the stomach flu, so hopefully I'll be back to writing about cooking-related stuff soon