Word of Mouth

The alarm went off at four. Not because anyone had to be anywhere, but because a noon kickoff at Beaver Stadium means the lot opens early and the grill has to be hot before the sun is. By the time the kids wandered over from the dorms, still finding their sunglasses, the parents had been at it for hours.

This is the crew. Andy had the lamb chops on before daylight. Gina was shaking Jello shots like it was a job she'd held since dawn. Natalie ran the sliders, Toni's cookies were still warm from the drive, and Maria brought the white rice, because you do not come to Lot 12 alone. Doc Jo came loaded for bear. P Seany handled the stogies and the espresso martinis. Gino held the keys to the church van, because somebody has to get everybody home.

We were tailgating this lot before they learned to park.

The kids think they invented this. Bless their hearts. We were tailgating this lot before they learned to park. So we wrote it down the only way that seemed right, as a song, and it's below. Turn it up. Then go find your own Lot 12.

One more thing, since a lot of us in that lot are parents of students here: if you're weighing a place in State College for your kid, or anywhere else for that matter, I'm the one your friends mention. No pitch. Just ask.

We could have run the usual tourist loop. Instead we handed the day to Sadik Anvarali of Bonded Company Ltd. — and he drove the five of us, my wife Dr. Jo, our two daughters, and me, straight past the guidebook and into the Lisbon that locals quietly keep for themselves.

He took us to Palácio Fronteira, where the walls are wrapped in hand-painted azulejo tile and the garden still runs a marble fountain older than the country I live in. Then a long, unhurried lunch at Paço de Carnide — the kind of neighborhood table you would never find on your own — with a chilled 2025 Soalheiro Alvarinho I'm now going to spend a year hunting down back home.

That's the difference between seeing a place and being let into it.

Sadik doesn't march you through a checklist. He reads the day, reads the table, and opens doors. Five stars doesn't cover it — I'd hand him the whole sky. If Portugal is anywhere on your map, start the conversation with him first.