Big day followed by Missy Higgins

Friends of ours, Brent and Amy, are visiting from Australia so we've been having fun playing tour guide again. Yesterday morning we were up early to leave the house at 8am to get into San Francisco. Brent and Amy toured Alcatraz in the morning while Andrew and I went to Ghirardelli Square where we had fabulous a Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate. Ghirardelli chocolate is a local premium chocolate which is probably the best American chocolate I've tasted. Ghirardelli Square is where the chocolate factory was, and is now a nice little shopping area built around the original preserved buildings.

After that, we wandered around Fisherman's Wharf until Brent and Amy finished at Alcatraz, then had lunch and did the Super Sightseeing Bus Tour with them of San Francisco.

We discovered recently that Missy Higgins was playing in San Francisco, and I missed her last time she played so made sure I got tickets this time.

It turned out that it was the same day we'd planned to spend in San Francisco, so figured we'd do a big day of touring, then see Missy afterwards, so it worked out well.

Missy was playing at a little place called Cafe Du Nord, which was a gorgeous little place. The venue was about 30m long and about 10m wide I guess. There was about 150 people there and was sold out, so was a really nice, intimate show.

Missy was fabulous. She sounded exactly as she does on her album. Her voice was gorgeous and strong, and the acoustics of the small venue just added to how good she sounded. She also talked to the crowd a lot, and explained how she got the inspiration for each song which was really interesting. I have a lot of respect for her for the fact that she's what I consider a REAL musician - she writes her own music, plays the instruments herself, and has a fabulous voice. She can get up on stage with a keyboard and guitar and swap between them for different songs and have nothing else but a guy backing her up with a guitar to sound just like her album.

She didn't start until 9:45pm though (she had 2 backup artists), and finished at 11:15pm, so we didn't get home until after midnight (after leaving the house at 8am). Needless to say we've slept in today and not done too much!!