Droning America: Fort Myers, FL

In Episode 2 Droning America heads down to Ft. Myers, Florida to meet up with the Queen of the Drone and Minnesota Twins Closing Pitcher Glen Perkins. From beaches to restaurants, make sure you watch to see what Ft. Myers has to offer. VIDEO TRANSCRIPTS: Angie Avestruz: Hello and welcome to Droning America. I'm your host, Angie Avestruz. Each episode we're going to be traveling all across the country, stopping at some of your favorite cities and hanging out with a local celebrity who's going to show us all that city has to offer from a brand new perspective, the sky. Today, we're in a city famous for its white sand beaches, [00:00:30] a popular destination among spring breakers and also home to a few major league baseball teams spring training. Welcome to Ft. Myers, Florida. To show us around, I'm meeting up with Tressa Cioffi, who's better known as queen of the drone. And later, we're catching up with a familiar face to major league baseball fans. So Tressa, we've been walking around, can't help but notice tons of palm trees in this area, and you guys are known as the City of Palms, is that right? Tressa Cioffi: We are known as the City of Palms. Angie Avestruz: I couldn't help but notice all these awesome art sculptures. Tressa Cioffi: Downtown [00:01:00] Ft. Myers in the last few years has really become popular in the art scene and the music scene. Angie Avestruz: So what else do the locals like to do around here? What are like the hot spots? Tressa Cioffi: There's a lot of really cool lounges and clubs and it's just fun to walk around when you're down here. With all the events that go on, it's just fun to sit around and walk. And you see, walking around, there's a lot of new restaurants around here. So at night time and even at lunch time, it gets packed with people because it's really good food and dining and we're right on [00:01:30] the river, so it's a win-win. Angie Avestruz: Next up, we're checking out the winter homes of a couple of buddies that were key pioneers in American history. Tressa, right now we're at a very popular tourist attraction area. Tell us about it a little bit. Tressa Cioffi: This is Thomas Edison and Ford winter estates and it is super beautiful, it's a huge place that people come here to see. And that's right off beautiful McGregor Boulevard. All those palm trees and then some of the cool houses right off of that boulevard and the architecture. It's beautiful. It makes my heart happy. I mean, whenever you're [00:02:00] in a bad mood in Ft. Myers, you just drive down McGregor and something just lifts off of you. It's a very beautiful thing to take in all the pretty historic homes and architecture. Angie Avestruz: Yeah, you can see why Thomas Edison and Henry Ford would want to build here. Tressa Cioffi: Absolutely. I want to. Angie Avestruz: On day two during our trip to Ft. Myers, we're visiting a world renowned beach famous for its sea shells and wildlife. We passed the causeway, we're here on Sanibel Island. Talk a little bit about what makes this place special. Tressa Cioffi: This place is very special. As you can see we [00:02:30] are at the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach. It's right on the tip of Sanibel Island. It is very quiet. Sanibel Island is right across from Ft. Myers and Austral Islands, and a lot of people come here just because it's very intimate. The scenery is very different than other islands just because they really try to protect the wildlife a lot. And then, you get out to some of these most amazing, beautiful homes, where rumor has it, a lot of celebrities vacation or own around [00:03:00] here, and this is basically their second, winter home. Another great thing about this place is the shells. Angie Avestruz: Yeah, you can't help but notice, they're all over the place. Tressa Cioffi: They're all over and it's very relaxing. It's an amazing place to drone when you get permission to do so. Angie Avestruz: Why do you love flying out in this area? Tressa Cioffi: Flying out here, you really get the whole tip of the island, something that you would never be able to get if you didn't have an aerial view of it. It's beautiful, obviously with the lighthouse, the water, you know with the big waves like crashing up against it, big waves. I'm such a Florida girl. Angie Avestruz: Big [00:03:30] waves behind us. Tressa Cioffi: Whoa, watch out. That's big to me, but it's beautiful. And then you know, when you scan the drone away, you see the causeway and all of even Ft. Myers Beach on a super clear day, so which is usually always. Angie Avestruz: If you're planning a vacation to Ft. Myers, fishing is a must. We're meeting up with three time all star, Minnesota Twins closing pitcher, Glen Perkins. He's taking us out on his fishing boat to show us why he loves living here for a few months out of the year. Glen Perkins: Well, [00:04:00] 2004 was the first fall that I was down here and then I've been coming down ever since. Spring training. First spring training was 2005 and basically since then. Angie Avestruz: Fishing is a huge thing that people do here. What else do you love about the city? Glen Perkins: It's been very friendly to our family. It's been a great place to have my family here. I mean, there's a lot to do, there's a lot that the kids like to do. I mean, obviously with the beaches and that and swimming. Angie Avestruz: When you have people visit what are a few things you guys have to do when you're here? Glen Perkins: [00:04:30] My buddies that come down, one of the days is definitely a fishing day. Angie Avestruz: I mean, you can't beat it, it has been gorgeous out here. Glen Perkins: Yeah, I mean, and you know obviously it's hard not to catch fish, which we're doing a really good job of right now. If I have to fish to midnight I will. I'll let you guys go, but I'm going to fish until I catch a fish, because I have never gotten skunked on this boat. Angie Avestruz: Yeah, can't start now. Glen Perkins: And it's not going to start now. Angie Avestruz: Settle in. Glen Perkins: Need to find a way to catch a fish. Angie Avestruz: We're going to be here for a while. Glen Perkins: This wind [00:05:00] is not our friend. It seems like they might not be here right now. They just ruined my fishing show. Sorry my Ft. Myers tourist show. Angie Avestruz: Yeah, like wait. Glen Perkins: This is my worst fear for everybody. That we don't catch fish back here, we have to go somewhere else. I do feel an enormous ... You know what's funny? Is I feel way more pressure doing something like this than pitching. Angie Avestruz: We're moving to a different location? Glen Perkins: We're just going to go around the corner. We're about here. Angie Avestruz: Right here. Glen Perkins: [00:05:30] You getting tired of that line yet? Least I'm making good casts for the TV. We need like a real time, like where the fish are at right now. Pressure right now to catch a fish. That's about it. Angie Avestruz: That's all I have to say about that. To end our trip, queen of the drone takes us to one of her favorite places to fly. Okay Tressa, we're on one of the [00:06:00] famous white sand beaches, tell us where we're at. Tressa Cioffi: Oh, we're on Bowditch Point Beach. It's right on the tip of Austral Islands. It's crazy, because this is a beach that everybody should know about, but yet, I'm a local and usually it's pretty quiet around here and I'm kind of letting the gem out right now, but Bowditch Point, it's where I love to shoot. I'm born and raised and I love it here and I'm so happy you guys are here to see it. Angie Avestruz: Well, Tressa thank you so much for showing us around your city the last couple of days. Tressa Cioffi: Yes, thank you. Angie Avestruz: And that's a wrap from Ft. Myers. Tressa Cioffi: All right. Woo, here we go.