Spark Boys and Girls Club Scavenger Hunt 2012

In addition to food, social media & blogging, I love kids! I love the open slate that a child is and how the right person, place, class, club or charity can make such a huge difference in the life of a child. That is why I recently took my social media talents to the Spark division of the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego. Spark stands for San Diego Professionals Achieving Results with Kids, long title, but basically it’s the Young Professionals division of the San Diego Boys & Girls Club. Spark just has that nice little ring to it!

I joined the Executive Committee of the club as the Communications & Social Media Chair. I am now responsible for the clubs e-mail blasts, Facebook page and Twitter account, as well as volunteering at our various social fundraising events (like the Ugly Christmas Sweater Toy Drive – see below – so fun!) and service events with the kids!

Before joining the executive committee as a board member I was simply a “Friend of Spark” or someone who attends the events that help raise money for the club. While a friend of Spark I was asked to put my broadcasting degree to work and host the 1st Annual Spark Scavenger Hunt.

The event was a super fun way to raise money for the club and I was honored to be a part of it!

Check out the video which includes my hilarious interviews with the teams and a glimpse at the different fun scavenger hunt tasks the participants completed along the way!

If you live in or around San Diego and want to get involved as a Spark Friend or Ambassador, please contact me at whitney@whitneybond.com or follow us on Facebook & Twitter for information on upcoming social and service events!

Arizona Taco Festival, ¡Olé!’

The highlight of my weekend in Phoenix was most definitely the Third Annual Arizona Taco Festival. I love nothing more than the combination of tacos, margaritas, outdoor daytime festivals… and the occasional fake mustache!

The event brought together the delicious taco makings of more than 40 local restaurants, bars and food trucks in and around Phoenix. Along with tacos came music, tequila tastings and sombreros a plenty!

This sombrero was won by a very nice man in a pepper eating contest, we found him after the contest and stole his hat… just kidding!  We just borrowed it for a pic!  The lovely lady modeling the hat is my friend and fellow blogger Amy Black of Amy’s Vintage Closet. If you were wondering where I got my authentic Mexican attire for this event, that would be straight from her closet!

Now on to the food!

We started the day with Duck Mole Tacos topped with Guacamole and Jalapeños from El Hefe.

You know that old saying, “save the best for last”, well I think we reversed it because this was my favorite taco of the day!

Although the next taco came in at a close second, it was the lobster taco from Chelsea’s Kitchen.

Big chunks of lobster with avocado, tomato salsa and shredded lettuce = yum!

I’m not going to lie.  We didn’t have one taco throughout the day that I didn’t love!

Next, was the shredded beef taco from El Santo topped with fresh tomato salsa, arugula and cheese.

The flavor of the beef was incredible!

Lastly was the chicken taco at La Hacienda.

La Hacienda was all-the-buzz at the festival, with everyone insisting we try their chicken tacos.  The tacos were topped with salsa verde, crema and cheese. They definitely lived up to their buzz, La Hacienda brought home “Reserve Grand Champion” in the taco competition for the third year in a row!

Before departing the delicious festival we did what we do best and found a photo booth!

Thanks to Awesoos for the pics!

This event is now on the calendar as an annual must attend!  See you in 2013 Phoenix!

San Diego Bloggers Happy Hour

I love meeting fellow bloggers from all over the world online, but I thought it would be really fun to meet local bloggers in San Diego!  That is when I decided to host a San Diego Bloggers Happy Hour. The event will take place in 3 weeks, Thursday November 8th from 5-7 PM at The Corner, downtown San Diego.

The Corner has great happy hour specials, delicious food and fun craft cocktails! I will also be creating a Little Leopard Book specialty cocktail exclusively for the event.

Please share with friends in and around San Diego and join us November 8th! Look forward to meeting you all then!

Chalk Art Painting, Live Music and Delicious Food at Little Italy Festa!

Little Italy Festa is the largest Italian American Festival on the West Coast. I love living in this quaint San Diego neighborhood for events like this! One of my BFF’s PK, or as I like to call him, PKizzle, and I attended the event on Saturday afternoon.

Upon arrival the first thing that caught our attention was the free photo booth from La Jolla Photo Booths, for those of you that know us, this was an obvious first stop as we’re both known as “paparazzi” within our group of friends for our immense amounts of picture-taking!

Don’t worry about that top pic getting cut off, I was SO not prepared when the first shot happened!

Next, we traveled down India St to check out what else was going on.

We spent some time walking down Grape Street checking out all the amazing Live Italian Chalk Art that was going on!

These artists have some serious talent!

It is amazing that this is all done with chalk!

Although I have memories of making some pretty legit chalk art on my parents driveway growing up, I think these might be a little bit more impressive!

We then traveled back up India to check out what else the Festa had in store.  We walked by the cooking stage where live cooking demonstrations were hosted by local Little Italy restaurants.

Although we didn’t catch one, I think this is such a cool idea and every seat in the audience was taken!

Next, we ran into these people…

They were out promoting their San Diego Gondola business where they take couples or groups out for a cruise across the bay in an authentic Italian gondola.  Such a cute idea, now I just need to find a boyfriend to take me on one (haha)!

Then it was time for my favorite part, the food!

Although we could have gone the traditional route with Italian food from one of the many delicious restaurants in the neighborhood, we decided to steer off the beaten path and try some of Hunter Steakhouse’s tasty tri-tip which we had been smelling all day!

PK and I split their tri-tip sandwich to save room in the belly for our next stop!

We then wandered over to Stone Brewery. No, not for the beer, well not exactly.

We were there for the Beer Mac and Cheese.

Cheese. Beer. Sausage. In a bowl. Enough said.

Yum, yum, yum.

We took our bowl of mac and cheese (well the portion in which I hadn’t already annihilated!) and went to watch some live music!

This guy was amazing.  I could hear him from my condo all morning before we headed down.  I’m pretty sure I heard “My Way” by Frank Sinatra at least 6 different times throughout the day and I didn’t hate it, like at all

If you want to attend next years festivities check out the Little Italy Festa website for more information!

White Chocolate Wedding Cake Martini

I hosted the dessert course of a Progressive Dinner last weekend and each house had their own signature cocktail.  What says signature Whitney and dessert cocktail more than a White Chocolate Wedding Cake Martini.  Check out my latest video on how to make your own!

Here’s a little shot of the drink in action at the party!

Salud!