This year, if you were thinking of going to the Gulf Shore for a vacation, considering the massive oil spill, you might reconsider and go to the North Shore instead.

The Midwest offers great places for vacation. We live in a beautiful part of the country.

And if you like to keep your everyday expenses local, then do your best to keep your vacation dollars regional. Support the Midwest vacation spots.

Here are some ideas:

Duluth and the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Door County, Wis., and the Green Bay area.

The Black Hills of South Dakota and Badlands National Park.

Isle Royale National Park in the middle of Lake Superior.

The Amana Colonies in Iowa.

Lanesboro, Preston and Rushford here in southern Minnesota.

The Mille Lacs Lake, Brainerd and Crosby area.

Lake Itasca State Park and the Bemidji-Walker-Park Rapids area.

The Minocqua-Rhinelander area of northern Wisconsin.

Sault Ste. Marie, Whitefish Point and Mackinac Island in Michigan.

Galena, Ill., and Bellevue, Iowa, along the Mississippi River.

Red Wing on the Mississippi and the Cannon Valley.

The Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska.

The Iowa Great Lakes, aka the Okoboji-Spirit Lake area.

Stillwater and the St. Croix River Valley.

The Fergus Falls-Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids area.

The Wisconsin Dells.

Houghton, Mich., and the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Hayward, Wis.

Ely and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

The Flint Hills of Kansas.

The Loess Hills of Iowa.

Hibbing, Virginia and the Iron Range of northern Minnesota.

Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods and International Falls.

Any of the major cities, such as Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, Omaha, Lincoln, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Fargo-Moorhead and Sioux Falls.