Palmer Hotel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota

Last Thursday I went with a couple of my besties to the Palmer Hotel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota to spend a night. It is the most poplar place in Minnesota for ghost sightings. It was also featured on an episode of The Travel Channel's "Ghost Hunters." The owner, Kelley, has an amazing story where she dug up human remains in the basement of the hotel based on a random phone call from a stranger.

            The hotel is located in downtown Sauk Centre in a beautiful brick building built in 1901.

This is the entrance of the hotel and it was like stepping back in time. The ceiling tiles were so cool too.

We arrived about an hour early for check in and spent time in the attached bar eating delicious appetizers. We also decided to take the hotel tour of the basement which started at 7 pm and ended at 9 pm.

The first hour of the tour was a history of the hotel. Kelley, the owner of the hotel also participated in the talk and shared a lot of amazing stories of ghostly encounters and strange happenings. The very first thing I noticed during the talk was this ceramic ghost. My late mother-in-law was into ceramics in the 1980's and made me this exact ghost as a gift one year. A few years ago it fell and broke but I always loved it. When I saw this, the first thing I thought of was my mother-in-law and this was a sign to me.

We carefully made our way into the basement into one of the many rooms down there. They told us that we may see, hear, feel or even smell paranormal activity and to be sensitive to all of our senses. They turned out the lights and we went around the room introducing ourselves and what we wished to experience.

When it came to my turn after I introduced myself I said that I wouldn't mind if Prince stopped by and played a few bars of "Little Red Corvette." The room filled with laughter and Kelley said that my request for Prince was a first for the tour. They also had a small mag flashlight that they placed on the floor and it would occasionally flick off and on. They said that spirits were making the flashlight come on and off. My friend Lynn and I did not feel it was spirit at all and when I returned home I did find this on the internet. We did have one participant that felt a lot of spirits but the rest of us did not.

We went into a second room and sat down. Again as in the previous room, Lynn and I didn't feel there were any spirits there. We had preordered our dinner since the kitchen closed at 9 pm earlier and I was surprised when we were told the food was ready and it was 9:20. We left at that time to eat but the rest of the group continued.

                                                   Steps for deliveries into the basement.

I had a Reuben and it was amazing. Lynn and JoAnn both had a pasta dish and they were equally impressed with the cooking. Remember what I mentioned above about Prince? There was music playing in the bar as we were eating and what song came on but "When Dove Flies" by Prince. Lynn and I looked at each other with our mouths wide open. How about that! I thanked Prince for stopping by.

                           Lynn in all of her kindness also bought us a goodie bag from the hotel.

                                                                    It came with slippers.

                                                                    Votive candles.

                                                                     Palmer House water

                                                            Lovely smelling soap

                                                                       Mints

                                                                       And some sage.

                                        Lynn, myself and JoAnn, GHOSTBUSTERS!

While we didn't encounter any spirits, I cannot deny what others have experienced. I do believe and have experiences lots of spirit encounters. I've honed my psychic abilities in the last few years and it has thinned the veil for me to be able to communicate with those that have passed on.

I personally do not believe that you can "call" on spirits (ghosts) to come and perform. Whenever I've had an encounter, it's been out of my control and they have almost always come with a message for me or one of my loved ones. But I know a lot of people especially with all the television shows on ghosts are very interested in the subject. I also feel if people pay hoping to have an encounter like at the Palmer Hotel, they expect to have one and therefore I can understand the use of the flashlight trick.

I had a strange kitty encounter while at the Palmer Hotel. Lynn and I were in the parking lot getting our things out of my car when a black and white kitten came running up to me and rubbing all over my legs. There were kitchen workers that happen to be out back on a little deck and they said they had never seen this kitten before but they were feeding it chicken from the kitchen. Yet, the kitten left the food to snuggle up to me. When I bent down to pet her, she seems so very light although she didn't seem like a stray. Definitely not a feral kitten.

Lynn was telling me I had to take her home. Rocketman would have killed me and Louie would have too. He does not like other cats and in the past has refused to eat and gotten very sick if we babysat someone's kitty. But I agreed if the kitty was still the next morning when we left, I would take her home. Luckily, the kitten never appeared. But we heard about a kitty ghost that people have seen and that walks on your bed at night in the hotel. I'm wondering now if maybe we saw the ghost kitty. We will never know.

We had such a great time and I would highly recommend a visit to the Palmer House. The stories and the history are so fascinating. The food was also fantastic!

On the subject of spirits, I will share an encounter I had with an orb last November. Rocketman was out of town and I was trying to sleep when it appeared in our bedroom. We have darkening shades which were down and there was no light anywhere in the room. It was the first time I had seen an orb in person and I grabbed my IPhone to video it.