Geeks First Camping Adventure

Thanks to my son’s new-found love of the outdoors  (who knew they were there the whole time he was on his laptop…) we took the plunge and decided to plan our first family camping trip.

To test out our equipment and not look like total noobs at the campsite, we hosted our first night out under the stars in the backyard. Coleman was kind enough to provide us with our first tent and an inflatable mattress to make it more comfortable for our family of three.

Our tent of choice was the Coleman Tenaya Lake 6 person Fast Pitch Tent with Cabinets.

We quickly learned that when a tent says it fits six people, it really only fits three comfortably.

We recorded ourselves pitching the tent and in the end, this model took us 30 minutes from start to finish. Now that we’ve done it once, though, we’re pretty sure we could cut that time down in half.

Once we climbed inside, I really like how the tent was divided into two rooms with the ease of a flap and the cabinets come with hanging storage to keep your stuff off the ground. Another bonus was the extension cord hole in the corner that zipped up tight around the cable to prevent unwanted bugs on you in the middle of the night. Of course, my son thought this meant he could bring a surge protector and charge his electronics. ::shaking my head::

The small tarp on the outside to keep your shoes clean was a nice touch.

If you don’t have any fear of  bad weather, you can leave the top cover off and see the stars while heading into dreamland.

Speaking of dreamland, we snoozed away on a Durarest Airbed and were surprised at how comfortable it was for an air mattress. It took around less than ten minutes to inflate and stayed firm all night.

After a good nights rest and fresh air, we woke up to find that our son didn’t want to leave. Instead, he and friend went in and out of it throughout the day.

We left the tent up for a few days out of laziness to take it down and it held up great in the small amount of rain we had one night. It didn’t pack as neatly in the original container as we when we took it out, but really, what does?

I was relieved to see that we only needed the basics to survive the night, despite many other camping sites telling us otherwise.

Overall, I think it’s safe to say that our first camping adventure was a success and one that we will be repeating on a larger scale in the future. Of course, before we can do that, we have to test out some bona-fide camping chow. In my next post, I’ll be reviewing the Coleman HyperFlame FyreCommander 3-in-1 stove. This puppy can do it all and I can’t wait to see what we can make with it.

Disclaimer: GeekMom was given a review unit for the purpose of this review.