My husband and I just returned from my 50th birthday celebration vacation in Denver Colorado. It was a first-time visit for both of us and probably one of the best trips I have ever taken. The city, mountains, and mountain towns and parks were amazing and had plenty of diversions to keep us busy. We even stayed in a haunted bed and breakfast, the Patterson Inn, though I wasn’t aware of its spooky reputation until after I completed the reservation. I discovered this interesting tidbit of info when I decided to send my hubby a link to the hotel. When I googled it, the search automatically brought up Patterson Inn haunted hotel… I was like, whaaaa? Sure enough, there were many articles where it was listed as one of Denver’s most haunted hotels. Unexpected, but very cool.

First and foremost, the B&B was beautiful. It was large enough to feel like there was plenty of space to move around without constantly running into people, but small enough where we were able to get to know the owner and his team for that more personable experience. Everyone was super nice and a lot of fun to talk to. Our room was gorgeous and spacious and the bed was amazingly cozy (thanks to Denver Mattresses, so we were told). And our breakfasts were made-to-order and delicious. Definitely an A++ stay.

Was it haunted? There were four moments that left me scratching my head. (My husband, the skeptic, would roll his eyes here.) Sometime in the middle of the first night, I woke up and I thought I saw a shadow of someone standing at the edge of the bed. Creepy. But then again, I was still really tipsy from the evening’s activities and without my glasses or contacts, everything is a blur. I was so tired when I saw it, it didn’t occur to me to be spooked so instead, I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Sorry ghost. Looking back, it very well could have been shadows caused by the two windows that flanked the space. But in the nights following, I never saw anything remotely like that figure in that space again, window shadows or not. Because I definitely checked.

On day two, while we were getting ready in the morning, our wardrobe door closed on its own. According to my husband, after I’d hung a robe on a door of the wardrobe and went back into the bathroom, the door stayed open for about 15 or 20 minutes, then closed itself. Could be gravity. It’s an old building and the floors are a bit uneven. But it was enough for my skeptic hubby to take notice and mention it to me. Again, no chills on my part, just a “huh”, then went back to whatever I was doing.

The next two occurrences happened during the second night. There was a moment when I woke up and thought I heard a little ball bounce on the hardwood floor in the hall outside our room and then the bouncing slowly faded like it was going down the stairwell. Then a little later, I heard a girlish giggle in the hallway that was light and airy sounding. No explanations besides perhaps a tired mind and an overactive imagination. In the following days and nights, there were no more occurrences. Or at least, none that I noticed. I concluded the ghosts really tried the first two days but probably got tired of our totally chill responses and gave up. Note to ghosts: If I’ve been dabbling with spirits of the drinky kind, your efforts will pretty much go wasted. Especially in a place where pot is legal. Don’t even bother. BOO duuude! 👻