We have a permitted driver in our house and, per Maine law, she needs to drive seventy hours with a licensed driver before she can take her driver’s license test. Seventy seems like an easy enough number, but it’s painfully difficult to get to when juggling the rest of life’s demands. We tried to wing it for a while, but six months in and with less than thirty hours logged on the driving sheet, we knew we had to get more serious about finding time for her to drive.
My husband started taking her out on longer weekend drives. They pick a diner, or other lunch spot, that is about an hour and a half away. She drives there and back, gets 3 hours on her driving log, and they get to try a new place. They usually head up north, somewhere along the coast.
It’s become their thing, and normally they go solo, but on one of their recent drives, they headed south to the Maine Diner located on Route 1 in Wells. My brother’s down in that direction, so I tagged along and we met his family for a late breakfast.
The Maine Diner is fairly well-known in southern Maine. They get a lot of press. They were even featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. The Travel & Leisure website also includes the Maine Diner in their list of “Best Old-School Maine Diners” by Brian Kevin.
Because the Maine Diner is a popular destination, there is often a wait to get a table, but we must have hit the window just right because we were able to find seats right away. We were off to a great start. We were all pretty hungry and wasted no time getting our orders placed. My husband had their signature cod cakes which were excellent. I went with the almond encrusted french toast which were also delicious. I love almond flavor so knew I wouldn’t be disappointed.
While we were there for breakfast, the Maine Diner is a great destination for any meal. They have an expansive menu with something for every taste. They have a great seafood selection and lots of comfort food options. It’s worth a visit.
And, the best part of our trip to the Maine Diner? My daughter added another three hours of driving to her log that day.
| things to know | |
|---|---|
| The Maine Diner | Route 1, Wells, Maine |
| Phone | (207) 646-4441 |
| Website | Maine Diner Website |
| Menu | Maine Diner Menu |
| Favorite ♥ | Almond Encrusted French Toast |
I’m participating in a Blogging A-Z Challenge for April 2016. I will be posting new content every day except Sundays. Each post is associated with a letter of the alphabet, starting with A and ending with Z. My theme for the challenge is Life in Maine, and each post will in some way relate to Maine. There are over 1500 other bloggers participating in the challenge. Click HERE to learn more.
Weekends in Maine 
My daughter will get her permit this summer. I like the idea of taking her on longer weekend drives 😊 also that French toast looks amazing!
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It’s actually worked out great and they’ve gotten to try a lot of fun new places during their weekend outings. The french toast was so good!
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I love diners. I’m fairly certain I went to this en route to a Father’s Day visit to the Seashore Trolley Museum some years back.
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It’s a pretty popular destination and it’s close to the Seashore Trolley Museum so I bet you did.
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Love the Maine Diner!
Your posts keep making me homesick. 🙂
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It’s a classic diner destination and so popular.
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I was initially confused by ‘we have a permitted driver…’ We call them Learner Drivers on this side of the Pond. 🙂
Susan A Eames from
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Learner Drivers sounds about right too.
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That’s a great idea… driving to new places to eat!
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It really made the driving into something fun instead of just another chore and they’ve gone to some really fun lunch spots.
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What a great way to get her driving practice done!
Yvonne V
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It’s really made it fun instead of a challenge.
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I shouldn’t read your posts when I’m hungry….
Permit drivers are supposed to log a certain number of hours before getting a license here, too, but thank goodness, we don’t have to prove it, as we would have forgotten to write anything down or lost the log altogether.
I’ve had almond encrusted french toast at a little hole in the wall diner in Springfield, an hour east of here. It had a raspberry sauce drizzled over it and was delicious!
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Yes, the driving log is our undoing. I bet my daughter actually has more than a 100 hours already but going on what we actually remember to write down means we still have a ways to go. Glad you found a place to get almond encrusted french toast. They are so yummy!!
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