A few years back we were able to negotiate a Thanksgiving deferral, a plan that moved our family holiday gathering to the weekend after Thankgiving or bypassed the holiday madness altogether, pushing our annual family pow wow up into January birthday season. We're lucky, no kids, retired parents, a weird genetic disposition towards avoiding traditional employment gives us independence in planning.

It seems like a dream job, yet again, sort of like The Best Job in the World competition. It's Expedition 206, a Coca-Cola funded tour of the planet with the lofty goal of finding out what happiness means to people all around the world. The winners, three "Happiness Ambassadors" are going on a 206 country tour in one year to, according to the site, "Find out what makes people happy."

Oftentimes we don’t have to travel someplace grand or distant to encounter the mysterious and unexpected. Apricot, burgundy, sunshine gold, rust. Autumn is such a drama queen. It’s impossible to ignore it. A bush that has been invisible for most of the year in its drab, green sameness jumps out of hiding wearing a coat of flaming red.

It was about three months ago that I received an invitation to participate in a social media cruise. The deal? A handful of travel bloggers were invited for seven days of Caribbean cruising in exchange for covering their adventures on Twitter, their blogs, whatever social media format they choose. I declined for a handful of reasons -- I get seasick, I'm a little claustrophobic, I was highly skeptical that this trip was my scene.

I took a guided tour yesterday. I'm not really a guided tour person -- I didn't like climbing in and out of the minivan, I didn't like having someone else decide when I get to stop to take pictures, and I didn't really appreciate the day's agenda. Hey, it was an experiment, every now and then I like to try out something I might not otherwise do. It's good to look at other ways of travel. I don't judge -- if you like guided tours you go right ahead, they're crazy efficient and on good ones, you learn stuff.