Anton's

I spent the day with a good friend of mine in St. Cloud yesterday.  She sat with her left leg elevated because of her new titanium knee.  I sat with my right leg elevated because of my shin bruise. We talked about hospital stays and medications.  Suddenly I said, "WTH!  What happened to us?  We used to talk about adventures, staying out all night, ending up in the ditch, and how much we had to drink!"  Her Mom was there too and she started talking about going into the ditch and riding around with her friends in a small western prairie town 70 years ago.  I hate to admit it but it's true, I've grown old.  I don't feel old in my mind but I do feel old in the body some days.  We went out to eat at Anton's in Waite Park.  This is a local business located right on the Sauk River. We sat by the windows to watch the river flow by.  Ducks and geese waddled by the windows.  One of the domestic geese watched me as I was served a piping hot popover that was almost as big as my head.  The goose maintained eye contact as I put honeyed butter on my popover.  I think it was playing mind games with me because I felt terrible.  I was tempted to bring some popover outside to it.  Every once in a while the goose would open it's mouth and quack at me. I could see it's black tongue trying to form the human words, "Popover-bring to me now."  After about 5 minutes the goose waddled away and I could relax and eat in peace.  The food was great.  I had a farmers market risotto with spinach, artichokes, feta cheese and tomatoes.  It was really good.  This restaurant has a lot of charm. Some of the booths have arched canvas covers like Conestoga wagons.  There is a phone booth with a gorilla making a phone call.  The walls and ceiling are decorated with wagon wheels and carved wildlife and other odd antiques.  I will definitely go there again.