This spring break, if you won’t be joining your peers in their varied but always hedonistic travels, give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve credit for valuing your sobriety and choosing to rise above the fruitless escapades so cherished by many fellow students.

But if praising your integrity doesn’t help soothe the disappointment of being cash-strapped and stuck in Tucson for the next week, have no fear: There are plenty of vacationer destinations for you to explore right in your own backyard.

Spring training at TEP

During the month of March, the Tucson Electric Park, 2500 E. Ajo Way, hosts Major League spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox. The ballpark has a capacity of 11,500, including 8,500 seats in the main grandstand and another 3,000 available on the outfield lawn, and draws hundreds of thousands each year. This year the park is sure to be a national hotspot since the White Sox added “”World Champions”” to their name. Tickets for spring training are on sale now and can be purchased online at www.tucsonbaseball.com. If you’re not a huge baseball guru, the lawn tickets are best. Not only are they the cheapest, but you can sprawl out on the plush grass and work on your tan. By the time spring break is over, everyone will think that gorgeous glow is a result of invigorating days spent frolicking on the shores of Mexico.

Arizona Inn

This spring break, if you get tired of lounging in front of the TV, you can use food as an excuse to change out of your sweats and leave the house. The Audubon Bar at the Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm St., serves award-winning contemporary cuisine with international flavors like sea bass and duck breast. It also offers more casual options on its lunch menu. However, the history of the inn is the most appetizing: Arizona’s first congresswoman, Isabella Greenway, built the Inn after the Great Depression to help keep her furniture factory, the Arizona Hut, in business. Over the years, an impressive bunch has lodged at the inn, including Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra. According to the tight-lipped receptionist I chatted with, celebrities still arrive, but employees have to abide by the inn’s famous “”privacy, quiet and sunshine”” policy.

Local museums

With its rich indigenous ancestry, Tucson is appropriately home to several museums. The Arizona State Museum on campus always hosts vibrant exhibitions. Yesterday, it hosted a lecture on “”Music and Muralism of the Mexican Revolution.”” During spring break, you can take a tour of “”Masks of Mexico.”” If you’re interested in a more unconventional type of museum, there is the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, which literally feels like you are walking through a preserved chunk of the desert. However, you will get a full explanation of all the wildlife and botanicals you may be stepping over while rushing to class. Another good choice is the Pima Air and Space Museum, 6000 E. Valencia Road, where you can take a tour of the used-aircraft lot that houses lots of passenger and fighter planes.

The great outdoors

If all of that stimulating sightseeing has revved you up, you can always go hiking in Sabino Canyon or camping on Mount Lemmon. If you’re tired of the bums taking over the local parks, you can venture to Tucson’s far east toward Agua Caliente – a beautiful park with three large ponds in which fish, fowl and ducks are the main inhabitants. The scenery is so picturesque you can take enough photos to exhaust the memory on your digital camera.

No university policy mandates spring break be a time of craziness; however, boredom shouldn’t be the alternative. This next week, if you aren’t going anywhere, you can still experience something new – and you don’t even have to leave the city.

Yusra Tekbali is a junior majoring in journalism and Near Eastern studies. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.