Palmer House Hotel Ghost Hunting Weekend

My Mom and I spent the weekend together in in what is the first ever, overnight trip for the two of us. It only took us thirty-two years. We decided to do a bucket list trip where we spend several days hanging out at the Palmer House Hotel & Pub, and participating in what would be our first ever ghost hunting experience.
 
We arrived to the Palmer House Hotel on Thursday, October 5th. Since we rented a   hotel room for Friday and Saturday night, we received Thursday night for free. I thought that would be an awesome three nights away from my family to get away and get some much-needed rest for this momma. It also allowed my Mom to get away from everyone, everything and relax. Dad drives us nuts sometimes.
 
Mom and I headed out of town around 12:30PM and started our trek to Sauk Centre, MN. We arrived to the Palmer House Hotel around 4PM. We checked into our room. While checking in, the staff member said, “Oh, room #11, one of the most active! Have fun!” I knew this prior to booking a hotel room at the Palmer House Hotel. I had done my research prior to calling the Palmer House Hotel, and while searching the Internet; I learned that rooms 11 and 17 were two of the most haunted or active rooms in the place.
 
Many months ago, I had been surfing Facebook, when I ran across Psychic Tiffany Johnson promoting an event coming in October at the Palmer House Hotel where she would be conducting a gallery reading in the basement of the hotel and then doing ghost-hunting investigations, along with Steve Gonsalves from the famous television show Ghost Hunters. I immediately called my Mom and told her about it. I knew how much she loved the television show Ghost Hunters. She was a big fan, along with being a fan of the Syfy Channel and pretty much every ghost show out there.  Several years ago, I had been a big Ghost Hunters fan as well, but had drifted away from many of the ghost shows.
 
Immediately my Mom said she would love to attend this event, so I purchased us each one ticket for Saturday night’s gallery with Psych Tiff and one ticket to the Ideal Event Management ghost hunting event. I then dialed the Palmer House Hotel and immediately booked a room for Friday and Saturday. The staff member informed me, we would have to stay both nights at the hotel and since we were booking two nights, we get a third night free. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and booked all three nights.
 
A couple days later, the event holder sent out an email stating the Palmer House Hotel guests would need to attend both night events in order to stay at the hotel. This led me to immediately canceling my one ticket each for Saturday to the psychic gallery and ghost hunting event, then signing up for both my Mom and I to attend the psychic gallery with Tiffany both Friday and Saturday night, as well as tickets to the ghost hunting events both nights as well. This meant an entire weekend of psychic galleries and ghost hunting which we were so excited about; we couldn’t wait for the event, which was more than six months away!
 
So, Thursday late afternoon, we arrived to the Palmer House Hotel, checked in and brought our belongings to our room. I was starting to get hungry and thought it would be a good time to get something to eat. This was not our first time eating at the Hotel, as around three months prior, my Mom, daughter and I stopped in one evening to have supper where we ate the most delicious meals. This time, I knew the food would be delicious and couldn’t wait to eat yet another delicious meal. I ordered the shrimp, with waffle fries and dip and a side salad. Mom ordered some pasta with tomato basil soup. The butter for the shrimp was in a little tin that was on a stand with a lit candle keeping the butter melted. It was the cutest little set up I had ever seen. We proceeded to have two fabulous meals.
 
After supper, we retired to our room where we watched television, talked and looked through our ghost hunting equipment. I had purchased a basic digital audio voice recorder, a K2 EMF meter and a P-SB7 Spirit Box device. Dad had purchased a digital audio voice recorder for Mom so she was trying to learn how to use it. I had zero experience with ghost hunting equipment, other than the digital audio recorder I used in college for classes, so we spent a couple hours playing with our devices, trying to figure out how to turn them on and use them. We wanted to be prepared somewhat for our first ever ghost hunting investigation.
 
I did turn out the light and right after I did so, I felt someone or something pushing down on my left elbow that was facing the wall, away from my mom. I yelled to my mom something cold had just touched my elbow and pushed on it. We tried to go to sleep, but the room above us was quite loud, with yelling, swearing and storming around. Eventually, mom fell asleep first. I was getting up and plugging in my phone across the room.  As I was standing at the television, my mom work up and yelled she saw a small black child sized shadow run across the room in the doorway by the bathroom and hallway to our room. I was immediately frightened and hopped up into bed under the covers. Because, you know, the ghosts cannot get you if you are all the way on the bed, and under the covers. We eventually both fell asleep and slept until the morning. I woke up several times throughout the night, and did not get a restful sleep.
 
Friday morning was October 6th, we went down to the diner inside the hotel and had some breakfast. Gosh their food is so delicious. I had one of the famous caramel rolls and it was so good! I had the steak and eggs breakfast, which was great. Mom also enjoyed her breakfast. We decided to drive into St. Cloud to stop at a store then returned back to the hotel. For lunch, we ate in the bar, and we had spinach dip with chips, you really cannot beat their homemade chips. They are incredibly delicious. I had macaroni and cheese and waffle fries with the special dip, yet again, another amazing meal.
 
Prior to the events starting Friday evening, we were contact by the front desk, asking if a gentleman could set up his ghost hunting equipment in our room. Our room, #11, is one of the three most haunted rooms in the hotel. I couldn’t say no, other guests would want to investigate in our room. So, he came to our room at 3:15PM and set up his computer to the Kinect program and connected it to our television so we could see it better. He had participated in many investigations over the years within the hotel. As he was setting up the equipment, a small child-like figure showed up on the Kinect screen for a minute, it appeared crouched down by mom’s suitcase. It then disappeared quickly.
 
After he left, I was exited to try out the new equipment hooked up in our room. At 4:40PM, I asked little girl Annie to show up in the room. Within seconds, there was a second child-sized figure on the Kinect machine standing right next to me. Mom was in the bathroom at the time.  I asked Annie to reach out and hold my hand. Annie did reach out to my hand several times and touched it. I could feel her cold energy, and as she touched her hand to mine, I felt tingles going into my palm and up my arm. I yelled for mom to come see. She came flying around the corner into the bedroom and the second figure disappeared. Mom had pulled up her pants but forgot to pull her shirt down, so her entire belly was handing out. The gentleman who set up the Kinect screen did state he had set up recording, mom had completely forgot. I did find him later and explain what happened in case he would be watching the video feed and see it later. Mom was so embarrassed. It was hilarious. I think I laughed so hard I peed a little. Don’t judge, pregnancy issues!
 
Friday evening started the exciting events. We started out the evening in the basement of the hotel, attending a psychic mediumship gallery with the famous Tiffany Johnson. The basement is pretty spooky. We were packed in with several rows of chairs. We did not get very good seats near the front and I started to get a little claustrophobic. We were down there in the basement for almost two hours. I never asked Tiffany any questions or for a reading during this gallery.  Mom did ask Tiffany if Grandma Emma had any messages for her. I don’t remember what she ended up saying to her; I don’t think it was very profound this time. It was exciting to watch her connect to the other people in the audience. Eventually, the famous Steve Gonsalves from Ghost Hunters arrived, we took a group photo, then proceeded upstairs for a meet and greet.
 
Since I was not too interested in the meet and greet with Steve and Tiffany, mom and I proceeded back up to the room for a bit. Upon arrival, mom went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. I decided I wanted to get Annie the little girl to show up for a third time. So I asked Annie to appear next to me on the fancy computer screen hooked to the television. Within a minute, at 7:22PM, the Kinect program started to show a small child stick figure right next to me. This time I had my phone in my hand, so I was able to record it. It was an incredible experience. Again, I was able to feel the cold air and energy as I put my hand next to the child figure. I was able to keep the figure there for several minutes. I then called my mom out of the bathroom to come into the room and the little figure disappeared. I found out the next day that only one person at a time can be in the room with the Kinect system that had been set up in our room, which is why the small child-like figure disappeared every time mom walked into the room. I did go downstairs to find the equipment owner and show him the video recording I had captured on my phone. It was somewhat dark, and I thought I was at the end of the stairs. I still had two to three stairs left and ended up falling down onto my knees onto the ground. I shot up so fast! I get my grace from my mother! Luckily only a couple people saw me fall on the ground.
 
We then attended a question and answer session with Tiffany and Steve in the big dining room. They answered questions, and Steve talked a little bit about Ghost Hunters, he answered questions about different episodes and haunted places he had investigated. We took a little break right before heading into the active investigation. We proceeded into the investigation into groups throughout the hotel. We were split up into two huge groups called “A” and “B”. We were in the group “A”, so we started the evening investigation on the third floor. While on the third floor I talked to another professional investigator there that had a Kinect system set up in the playroom. I told him about the little ghost girl Annie that showed up three times and showed the video evidence I had captured.  He thought it was very interesting. I then told him I am a psychic medium, as well as pregnant, and he states knowing I was pregnant, the ghosts and spirits would be more drawn to me.
 
After about an hour, we then went down to the second floor for an hour. The event host did tell us we could also go down to the basement. Mom decided she didn’t want to go down to the basement, so she stayed up on the second floor in our room, checking out all the equipment that had been set up by the professional investigator. It was pitch black going down the stairs as they had turned out all the lights. I used my phone as a flashlight. I made it to the big room, only to find a huge group down there in the dark, and we were not supposed to go down there yet.
 
As I arrived into the basement, I quickly found an open chair and sat down. One of the staff that works there was conducting the investigation, along with Psychic Tiffany. She told me when I arrived they had not received any contact with the spirits or ghosts they were trying to connect with that night. I listen to her talk for a bit, asking questions into her voice recorder. I then asked her what all the fuss was about on television about the dog with the red eyes. I asked her where in the basement could the dog with the red eyes was located.  The staff member then said that was a great idea to call in the dogs. She said many people see dogs down in the basement, and the Palmers used to own dogs, keeping their dogs in the basement many years ago.
 
All of the sudden I felt my hearing in my right ear go out and a flashlight that was turned off in a chair in front of me came flying off the chair and onto the ground. As the flashlight hit the ground it turned on. There had been two metal flashlights on the chair in front of me and I had no idea they were there. I had been sitting perfectly still without moving. The metal flashlights are the ones where you have to turn the head to get them to come on. The staff member started to ask the dogs questions, but the light remained on. Finally, I asked the dogs if they wanted a treat, perhaps some steak. All of the sudden the flashlight on the ground went out. The staff member and I continued to ask the dogs questions, the light continued to turn off and on when we asked the questions. Psychic Tiffany also had a whistle on her phone only dogs can hear, so she would play it. Pretty soon, the light would start going off and on again. Tiffany used the whistle a few times to get the dogs to come back when they would stop interacting with us using the flashlights. Eventually, time was up and we did not get any more interactions from the dogs. It was time to retreat to our rooms, or go to the bar to get some food.
 
For supper, we ate late in the bar after the completion of the investigation and enjoyed a six-pack meat pizza. It was delicious. We then retreated back to room #11, visited for a bit, then called it a night and went to sleep. This night I was able to sleep a little better. I did wake up a few times, but I did sleep longer and get more rest. When I woke up in the morning, I felt much more restful.
 
Mom and I slept in on Saturday, October 7th, since we were so tired from the past two days. We ate a late lunch in the diner in the hotel. I enjoyed a grilled cheese and chili, even that was amazing! Mom and I also shared some chips and salsa. Their chips are so addicting.  Mom decided to stay downstairs for a while and read some books while I went back up to the hotel room to take a nap. As I was lying down in bed with my eyes closed, I felt someone get into bed with me. It was a cold presence. I instantly knew it was Annie. I felt cold hands running down my back. I felt her put her arms around me, cuddling with me. I lay there for a minute, and then told Annie if she wanted to lie next to me, that would be fine, but to not touch me. The presence lifted off of me, but as I drifted to sleep, I could still feel her cold presence next to me on the bed. I slept almost two hours and woke up feeling a lot better.  Shortly after I woke up, mom arrived with a stack of books she had purchased downstairs. We started to get ready for the evening.
 
We started out the evening Saturday in the basement of the hotel, attending a psychic mediumship gallery again with the famous Tiffany Johnson. This time we were first in line to go down to the basement, so we got amazing seats near the front. I decided this night to ask Tiffany a question. I asked her if she had any messages from Grandma Emma. All she said was Grandma Emma says I am thinking about naming the baby after her. This was somewhat true, but only if we had another girl, the first name was planned to be Jessamae. Mom did ask Tiffany if her girlfriend Susie from high school who died had any messages for her. Tiffany said she did not want to scare mom, but she said she should get her heart looked at. Tiffany also mentioned by mom was battling a knee issue, which is true, mom has two bad knees, with one worse than the other. Tiffany also said that Susie states mom need to trust people more. This is something mom really does need to work on. Mom has a hard time trusting others, as she has been burned so many times in the past.
 
During the meet and greet with Steve and Tiffany, mom and I snuck into the bar and ordered supper. Mom and I both got the prime rib with au gratin potatoes and a side salad, yet again another amazing meal. Night number two, we already knew how things were going to go down, so we were able to plan our evening a little better.  We knew what to do right and our second night went much smoother as we had tips and tricks from the night before. We then attended, once again, another question and answer session with Steve and Tiffany. 
 
We then proceeded into the investigation into groups throughout the hotel. We were split up into two huge groups called “A” and “B”. This night mom and I were in the group “B”. We started again on the third floor for an hour of investigating. We then moved down to the second floor. I pretty much stayed in our room when we got to the second floor since the professional investigator had even more awesome equipment out. He had a computer that was hooked up to a headband thing. It was able to read the brain waves and there were colors on the screen of his computer. If you focused hard enough on one color, you could turn the dials all the way backwards. It was really neat and I had fun playing with many ghost-hunting gadgets.
 
After the investigation was over, we were very tired so we went right to bed. We slept well during the night and woke up Sunday morning, got ready for the day, and then ate breakfast in the diner. I had the famous caramel roll again and we both ate breakfast, which was amazing. The Palmer House Hotel never disappoints when it comes to food!! We loaded up the car and headed back home.
 
Overall, I had the best girls get away trip with my Mom. It was fun to meet some celebrities and spend time in the haunted Palmer House Hotel. The hotel is absolutely breath taking and beautiful. The staff is so kind and attentive. The food is out of this world amazing.
 
Sending you love and positivity,
Jadie Winters

Palmer Ghost Video