For those of you in the same situation, I first had to install SP3 for SQL Server 2008 R2 Express because you can't directly upgrade to SQL Server 2017 Express unless you are running SP3. I was running SP2. Once this was done, I upgraded to SQL Server 2017 Express by using the custom install option. I then opened ESMC and went to Help->About. The DB version is now showing Microsoft SQL Server 2017 (RTM) Express Edition (64-bit) 14.0.1000.169. I then went to Help->Upgrade Product and a new client task was created. After a few minutes, I was kicked out of ESMC and I could not log back in. A few minutes later, the login page wouldn't even come up, but after some more time, it finally came up and I was able to log back in. ESMC is now showing it is v7.1717.0 and the Web Console is at v7.1.393.0. The last thing I did was install SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) on my server so I could manage the DB a little easier.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/install-windows/supported-version-and-edition-upgrades-2017?view=sql-server-ver15
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-ver15
