No clock changes required

I never liked daylight savings or really saw the point, so it was nice to miss out on the time change this year since Hawaii stays on standard time all year. Since there are no neighboring states and we are more than one time zone away in any case it was easy for Hawaii to opt out of federal daylight savings from the start.

Currently sunrise is around 6:45AM and sunset 6:45PM which seems just right as we approach the spring equinox. Here in the tropics the length of a day only varies plus/minus 90 minutes at the solstices so the need to maximize daylight is much less. Plus all the islands are fairly close together in longitude.

As of last weekend now the time difference to mainland is:

• +3 hours to west coast
• +4 hours to mountain time
• +5 hours to central time
• +6 hours to east coast

Sunday morning I enjoyed not "losing an hour" and the sun rising and setting at unfamiliar times. 

La Spezia

Last year a nice new Italian restaurant opened in Koloa that has become a reliable favorite. La Spezia is across from the Koloa post office one block down from the Koloa shops near Sueoka market, right next to the Big Save. The atmosphere is a little more island-style casual - it isn't unusual to see T-shirts and shorts - but the food is very high quality, nothing casual about the preparation. Recently it has been crowded but last night we were lucky to get a table without waiting.

The hours are a little unusual: they serve breakfast and dinner but are closed lunchtime, with the exception of brunch on Sunday, and closed Mondays. They have a full bar and a wide selection of wine. In addition to the regular menu they usually have some daily dinner specials worth asking about. Portions are reasonable size but not enormous. We have yet to try the desserts.

Parking lot is next to the restaurant adjacent to Big Save parking lot directly across from the post office (warning: the dirt parking lot can be rather muddy).