Vancouver Games will be remembered with glowing hearts

We have done it. Canada has done it. The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games will be remembered "with glowing hearts" for years to come.
Everyone will be glad to know I've finally recovered from my final three days on the road (Whistler, B.C., to St. John's, N.L., to home). I left Heather Moyse to her well-deserved celebrations late Wednesday, Feb. 24, and arrived in St. John's at 2:30 a.m., Friday, Feb. 26, just in time for Newfoundland Day at the Olympic Games.
My first stop was O'Donel High School and a Living Healthy Commotion which kicked off with cheers from hundreds of students as CTV filmed shots for Canada AM, followed by presentations from myself and Brad Gushue, a graduate of O'Donel High and Olympic gold medallist in curling from Torino 2006.
I stayed for the beginning of the school kitchen party and Newfoundland Idol contest and then headed to Mile One Stadium where CTV was putting on a giant celebration with live Olympic coverage on enormous screens and lots of activities, including an RBC booth where you could do a shootout and get your picture taken with an Olympic torch and yours truly.
I met lots of crazy characters and stuck around to take in the concert that evening starring Cheryl Bernard and the Sam Roberts Band. On the giant screens beside the stage they were showing the women's gold medal curling match.
As Sam good-naturedly pointed out, this was the first time he had to compete against curling for people's attention.
By the time I made it back to P.E.I. the next morning, I was ever so glad to see my own bed and to watch the remaining Olympic events from a cozy corner of my own home. I gathered with my husband and three generations of Grants to watch the final Olympic event, the men's hockey. We celebrated with 22 million other Canadians in our moment glory, the first nation to win 14 gold medals.
There is no doubt that Sidney Crosby's goal was perfect in so many ways, nor is there doubt that critics have been silenced, but above and beyond these facts, over the last several weeks, we as a nation celebrated the beauty that is a journey well made by high-striving idealists called Canadian athletes.
It was absolutely wonderful to see so much
live coverage of the
Olympic Games and I particularly loved the interviews with athletes and the background information that made their efforts come to life and their performances all the more meaningful.
I won't lie, on departure from Vancouver I was a little sad not to be staying for the final days of the Olympic Games, but as it turned out, being here on the other side of the country for those last exciting events really brought home the incredible impact and success of our coast-to-coast Olympics.
Newfoundland and P.E.I. residents were equally proud to be hosting the Games and the sense of connection to our Canadian athletes and sense of pride in our Canadian identity were, you guessed it, as clear and powerful as the "true north strong and free."

Kara Grant of Stratford competed in the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and at the Beijing Games in China in 2008.