How to talk about Island life?

We are in the midwest for a couple of days.

We've been visiting with family, hanging out, enjoying the sun, and letting cousins play.

Sounding pretentious or "better than" is not a midwestern thing.  The culture in small town Mid-America is to pretend that we are all the same even though we are all keeping tabs of other people.  

So how then do you explain that you live on an Island? It sounds pretentious.
Or how do you explain that it isn't as exotic as it sounds, but you are happy and you know it's cool.
How do you swoon over a place that you love if such swooniness might seem "better than."

The fact of the matter is that we are proud of where we live and the decisions we have made to get there. On the other hand, we are well aware of the losses that we encounter living so far from family and in such an expensive part of the country.

But alas, we navigate the realities of Island life, even off island.