Anne Keylor and her daughter Kelly Warner feel like a little piece of them will be in Vancouver this February after witnessing yesterday's 2010 Olympic Torch Relay through Cape Breton.

The Glace Bay residents saw the Olympic flame in their hometown and then travelled to Sydney for the community celebration event as the torch relay wound its way across the island, visiting 16 communities from North Sydney to Port Hawkesbury.

“The whole Olympic spirit is captured in that flame. (The torch relay) makes you part of the Games. I love it,” Keylor said. “If you can’t be there in Vancouver, you can be there in spirit.”

Keylor and Warner weren’t the only two feeling the Olympic spirit as thousands of Cape Bretoners lined streets and attended community celebrations to catch a glimpse of the flame as it makes its way across Canada on the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history.

Milford's Kim Simon was the first person to take up the torch in Cape Breton early yesterday near the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal in North Sydney. Simon’s family, which included her mother Jessie Whalen, a native of Pleasant Bay, was there to cheer her on.

“I’m so excited, nervous-excited, but really happy to be Number One,” said Simon, moments before taking off down Purves Street in North Sydney.

From the Sydney region, the flame travelled to Baddeck, Wagmatcook, Whycocomagh, Waycobah, Mabou, Port Hood, Judique and Port Hawkesbury, where another community celebration was held last evening. The flame travelled a total of 489 km Monday, by car or in the hands of one of the 132 torchbearers.