A few years ago, my girlfriend and I travelled to Milestone, Saskatchewan, a small town about an hour south of Regina. Out of all the buildings in Milestone, the largest is the historic Milestone Homestead, which is a former hotel that now operates as a bar. That year the community had come together and transformed the upper levels of the hotel into a spooky haunted house. Although it was a volunteer community project, it was fairly well done – at least from what I saw. Most of my time in the house was spent cowering behind Jessica with my eyes closed as she led the way. But, after we got out, and Jessica told me it was safe to open my eyes, I admitted it wasn't that scary at all.

Then I asked if we could go home and never do it again.

One year later I travelled to Kingston, Ontario to take in one of the scariest Halloween attractions in Canada. Not only is Kingston a lively and beautiful city, it's also plagued by the supernatural. From haunted bars to alleyways, hotels to houses and cemeteries to penitentiaries, there are plenty of creepy stories to go around.

Earlier this year I was featured on Dates In the States, an American-based travel blog. They interview various different bloggers to share their travel stories so I was really excited when they approached me. It was a pleasure to work with Crystal and Shane and I love their work, so I thought I would return the favour and interview them back.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself, your blog and how it all got started.

My name is Crystal and I am the writer and creator of Dates in the States. Shane, my boyfriend, is the brains and helps me come up with the content and ideas. Without him, Dates in the States wouldn't be where it is now! We've recently grown our social media exponentially, created an online course, and a Patreon Membership for our followers.

As much I love travelling the world, my absolute favourite thing is all the creepy, spooky stories that come along with it. If there is a dark story, I'm always keen to write about it. But, to be honest, although I've travelled to many of the world's most disturbing places, I've never had a ghostly encounter. I've never taken a picture of a ghost, I've never seen one, I've never heard one, nothing at all.

But, that doesn't mean I don't believe in ghosts. I would absolutely love to catch evidence of a ghost sometime. So, when Alyson Ford, Matt Lay and Cory Nagy of Paranormal and Supernatural Team Saskatchewan (PAST) reached out to see if I wanted to join them for an investigation I immediately jumped at the chance. We would also be joined by Justin Henry, a new member to the organization. I've chatted with PAST a few times over the past year, so I was excited to spend a night with them. For this investigation they would spend a night at one of Regina's most popular board game cafes, Boards n Beans, on 1840 Rose Street.

PAST's philosophy is to not only document hauntings, but also help the people that are being affected. Often hauntings can be caused by either bringing in negative spiritual energy, or by having underlying issues like anxiety, insomnia, depression or addiction. External elements can cause supposed hauntings too, like an over exposure to Wi-Fi or electricity.  PAST goes into to prove hauntings, but also to bring solace to those who want to know what's really going on around them.

There is a change in the air. T-shirts are being replaced by bunny hugs and coffees are being replaced by pumpkin spice lattes. For a few weeks, the air is crisp, the skies are blue, and the trees are on fire with orange, red and yellow leaves. Autumn has finally arrived to the prairies.

To celebrate this, I recently attended a trip to Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP) alongside Tim Johnson of Tim Johnson Travels and Marc Smith of Marc My Travels. It was made possible by our tireless organizers Guy Theriault and Megan Dudeck of Parks Canada and Reba Lewis of Travel Manitoba.

This was my first time to ever spend a night in a national park, so I was very excited to try out an oTENTik. For those who have never stayed in one before, oTENTik are a glamping enthusiast's dream. The "missing link" between a tent and cottage, these fully electric cloth buildings have a built-in heater and one third of them have a stove. The weather was still warm when we were in the park, so we opted not to use the stove, but we were told that in the winter – yes, you can glamp in the winter! – these make the tents nice and cosy.

Written by Paula Worthington.

It's hard to pick just five great attractions in a city made for exploring. For too long, Lethbridge has been seen as a "drive through" city, but in recent years, it has confidently put itself on the map as a destination in its own right.

Here are five not-to-miss attractions on your next visit to Lethbridge:

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a good golfer. I don't know my putters very well, I don't know my own driving strength and for some reason I tend to always hit the ball into the water, the sand pit or a tree. But, just because I'm not very good at it doesn't mean I don't enjoy it.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit two golf courses while in Lethbridge. One was Evergreen Golf Centre, a family-friendly golf course, and the other was Paradise Canyon Golf Resort, a picturesque course sitting in the edge of Oldman River.

Looking for a golfing getaway? Lethbridge is your perfect place to stay and play!

If this wasn't a travel blog, it would probably be a food blog. I love visiting restaurants, reviewing food and sharing my experience with others. I'm also very picky about food, so I won't say that good food is bad, or bad food is good.

That being said, I love to try new food. I don't always like it, but I love growing my culinary palate. While travelling the world I've had some strange food encounters, like raw horse (yum), ox tongue (yum), boiled eggplant (yum, unless you mistook it as a chocolate cupcake, in which case not yum) and, the one I am most known for, dog duck (very yum).

But, throughout all my travels, the one thing I've always wanted to try was bugs. By bugs I don't mean raw earthworms pulled from my parent's garden. Those are gross and have chunky dirt inside them and they don't taste very good. Instead, I mean prepared bugs. Bugs that have been fried or baked or turned into paste and put onto crackers. Think "Grasshopper and Strawberry Jam" bugs; that kind of thing.

About a year and a half ago I visited Kyiv, Ukraine. As I walked down the millennium old streets and gawked at the towering cathedrals, I saw the beginnings of a new country, one that was slowly rebuilding from a much darker time. The process of what I was seeing had a name. It was called decommunization.

Decommunization is the process of removing all symbols of Communism from countries once under Soviet control. This is happening in Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus and even in places like Kazakhstan, where the capital city was moved and rebuilt.

Decommunization includes renaming architecture, changing laws and protocols, and even tearing down monuments. People's Friendship Arch in Kyiv, for example, which symbolised the friendship between the Communist East and the Capitalist West, was torn down. Some statues, like war memorials, are exempt, but there is still talk of making modifications to them. Anywhere you go throughout the former Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle are being removed – not from history, but from modern society.