Days 541-547! Well, WordPress just notified me I started this blog 2 years ago! So that’s pretty fun to get notified! We’re slowly nearing 2 years of blog posts, which will be a big day as well! This week I had a fantastic weekend with my nieces, got back in to working out, and had a lovely time hanging at home.

Nashville was fun, but it was time for the next adventure!

My parents and I drove to Indiana to hang out with my nieces (not blood related, but nieces nonetheless). We arrived on Thursday, June 26th and stayed till Sunday, June 29th! I have lots of lovely pictures and stories from the weekend, but for the respect of my young nieces and their lack of consent to being plastered on the internet, I’ll keep it brief!

One of them is 2 years old and started saying “Uncle Elie” which was super cute, I played guitar with both of them which also was super cute, and we played a multitude of games with them which… was also cute. Everything about the weekend was wholesome and cute!

My parents got their nails painted (I unfortunately missed out as I was taking a nap), we went to some parks, the zoo, and had a great time hanging out! Sorry for the lack of details on this week. But it is what it is!

When we got home on Sunday, we watched some TV and called it a night.

Alright! Let’s get to the rest of the week!

I started my day on Monday, June 30th (how the heck are we already done with June?!) with a task my parents were very happy I was getting to, cleaning out my childhood room. This led to me going through lots of old mementos, birthday cards, etc. which was a fun trip down memory lane.

After I wrapped up, I brought out my trumpet for the first time in years to play. It was a blast but my lip muscles (embouchure) are not what they used to! For those who didn’t know, I played trumpet for around 9 years!

My dad had a rehearsal for the show he’s currently in. So we all hopped in the car to drop him off and my mother and I hung out in Morton, Illinois (where I went to high school). We played some cards at a local Baskin Robbins and then scooped him up after he was done.

(I couldn’t resist the pun!)

When I was in Australia, I found out about the radio station Triple J. They have a station called Triple J Unearthed where independent artists can submit their music to be approved, reviewed, submitted to competitions, and potentially played on the radio!

If you want to check it out and leave a review here’s the link:

https://www.abc.net.au/triplejunearthed/artist/landlocked-beach-bum/

Tuesday, July 1st, today was a lot of relaxing. I played some guitar and piano. I also started doing a lot of research into my next adventure!

I decided on an immersion language school in Antigua, Guatemala… all I had to do was get flights. But that was for tomorrow Elie.

My parents and I have been watching the latest season of Welcome to Wrexham. Today we binged the last 4 episodes and then played some games after dinner.

It’s nice to be able to relax at home with not much to do!

Wednesday, June 2nd was here and it’s the end of another week. Not a ton to chat about, but I guess that’s part of relaxing and resting between adventures (and not being able to share as much as usual).

Today I bought my flights for my future travels and arranged my pickup for the language school! I’ll also be making a stop to visit some friends in Portland, Oregon before heading to Central America!

I played more trumpet, played cards with my mother, and we had dinner at a family friend’s house! We made homemade Alfredo, with our friends Lynn and Larry.

It was wonderful catching up with them! It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen them! Lynn does a drink of the day and this was the picture we took for it.

When we got home, I played guitar for an hour and a half and then we finished off the night watching TV!

I’ll admit, it wasn’t the most eventful blog post… but it was a really great week! I had a blast with my nieces and I finalized my plans for the next phase of traveling! I’m super excited to get back out and start learning a new language!!

This coming week will be full of fun as well and lots to write about! So stay tuned and I’ll see you then!!

– Elie

If you haven’t listened to “Life’s a Trip” by Landlocked Beach Bum… it’s out now! And you can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music, or whatever streaming platform you prefer!