2011_1106 junket \JUHNG-kit\, noun: A pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.

junket \JUHNG-kit\, noun:
1. A trip, usually by an official or legislative committee, paid out of public funds and ostensibly to obtain information.
2. A sweet, custardlike food of flavored milk curdled with rennet.
3. A pleasure excursion, as a picnic or outing.
verb:
1. To go on a junket.
2. To entertain; feast; regale.
Yeah, well, there's a lot more of them on the operation, fellows in the control room, women too. They all decided to go to California together on a junket. Whooping it up, you know?
 -- Patricia Highsmith, Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes
Some lobbyists get together and put up money for a few congresspeople to go to a resort for a winter weekend. The catch is the lobbyists get to go along and talk to them. They usually call it a seminar or a symposium, but basically it's a junket.
 -- John Lutz, Final Seconds
Junket is rooted in the Latin word juncata which meant “rush basket.” It is likely that the basket was associated with the notion of a picnic basket and came to signify a pleasure trip.