By: Audrey Smith

On Presidents’ Day weekend, I visited my sister at Fordham University in the Bronx. We went to Manhattan many times and tried many different types of food. Some good and some bad. Here’s some of the highlights and lowlights of the meals we had.

First we got Neapolitan style pizza. If you have ever had Punch Pizza or Tonos here in the Twin Cities, it’s almost the same idea, however this pizza was even better.

The crust wasn’t tough at all, and it almost melted in your mouth. The cheese was full of flavor and didn’t disappoint.

I got the margarita pizza and my sister got the Alfredo pizza. I would say that although the margarita pizza was an 8/10. It had a nice crust, red sauce, mozzarella chunks, basil, and whatever other seasonings were included. I did love this pizza and would purchase it again in the city, however there wasn’t enough cheese.

The Alfredo pizza was a 10/10…or even higher. It was the best pizza I have ever had. It wasn’t a classic pizza with red sauce, it had an Alfredo based sauce with cheese, truffle oil, and more. I liked that this had a
cool spin on the original idea of pizza. I would rate this place a 9.5/10.

Next we tried kimchi at a fast casual Korean restaurant called Rice Kitchen. I had never tried kimchi prior to this trip, so it was my first time ever having it.

The price at the restaurant was very reasonable, which was nice. This kimchi included beef filling, egg, seaweed, rice, pickled radish, carrot, and cucumber. It also had a really good sauce that came along with it.

We got Kimbap along with it, the beef was really good but chicken was a downer. I would rate the kimchi a 9/10 for the flavor and reasonable price. I would rate the Kimbap a 7/10 between the beef and the chicken. I would go there again and I recommend it. Overall 8/10.

The last place I’m reviewing is Cava. This is a chain restaurant that’s in big cities, but they don’t have any near the Midwest. Think of Chipotle but Mediterranean…and better.

The kid’s meals were just a main course but smaller, although they were pretty big. We both got a kid’s meal. The price was reasonable for the meal and it was really good.

They had a pita full of lamb and fried pita on the side. You can get many other things at the restaurant but what I got was amazing. I would rate it a 10/10.

By: Sophie Johnson

Expedition Everest was one of the rides that I re-rode multiple times when I was in Disney World in December of 2021. This is one of the fastest roller coasters in the park. While on this coaster, you speed over mountains and through caves where BigFoot is lurking in the darkness.

This ride has some unexpected aspects to it as well, including when it appears to be a dead end with a broken coaster track. You creep up to the edge and then zoom backwards in the opposite direction.

I also loved this ride so much because it was night when I rode it, and right as we were rolling over the mountain, the firework show started and it was a very memorable moment.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a short but very gripping ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This ride is based on the film series ‘The Twilight Zone’. It includes many surprising sharp turns and extreme drops. The Tower of Terror has windows that open to the outside and when you are suddenly dropped, you can see flashes through the windows of the whole Disney park. I love the anticipation of this ride and it was definitely worth the long wait in line.

Space Mountain is a thrilling indoor roller coaster in the dark. The theme of this roller coaster is outer space. While waiting in line for this ride, you walk through a dimly lit passage that mimics the inside of a spaceship. You can look out and see different stars and planets in the distance.

Once you get to the actual roller coaster, there are small, two person carts that zoom down a winding and spiraling track in the dark. The part of this ride that makes it one of my favorites is that you get very immersed in the experience. It is also exciting and scary because you can’t tell when the track will drop down really far or take a sharp turn.