When traveling abroad, the adventure usually begins when you first get on the plain or walk onto European ground for the first time However, On my trip I had quite a big experience before I even left my home.
The day before I left I had a mild caution in my mind because during the day my family noticed a whole lot off sirons passing our house, along with a number of Police, Firefighters, and utility workers blocking off Roosevelt Avenue on the east side of our block. From what my family could see it looked like they were fixing a gas leak. Like I said, I had a mild caution, but from my experience gas leaks usually weren't huge deals. Anyway, I went to sleep that night anticipating the plane ride the following morning.
I quickly sat up in my bed. A huge crash had just rang through the house.  The clock read 5 AM. It sounded like someone had tipped over the refridgerator in the kitchen above my room and hit the floor like the surface of a drum.  A sat slowly absorbing what I had heard. The crash was folllowed by a thumping sound, as if someone was knocking on the walls of our home. Each thump was about two seconds apart. I got up and edged up the stairs to investigate the eeiry sound.
I walked into the kitchen just when my mom came running down the stairs. She seemed to know exactly what was going on. She told me something had just exploded near the house. I began creeping along from one window to the next to see if there was anything out of the ordinary outside. It was still dark, so I did not see anything. (the thumping had turned out to be our rabbit, Henry, thumping his feet on the floor which is what he does when he's scared)
Being in my very sleepy state of mind I wandered out onto the back porch because I noticed it was raining a little, and nothing cheers my tired mood like a little rain (seriosly, I enjoy rain). once outside I heard a clacking noise, as if people were slapping sticks together not to far off. Coming to  odds of exactly how illocal it was that a bunch of people would be out at 5 in the morning to do such a strange, I realized that it was the sound of a crackling fire. A very very loud fire. Hurrying to the front yard where the sound was coming from I came to see the entire sky to the North of house blazing orange against the darkness. I could see a harsh orange flame flickering behind the neighboring houses.

This is what had happened about a block fom my house:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.king5.com%2Fnews%2FFire-engulfs-house-in-Seattles-Pinehurst-neighborhood-130558363.html&h=sAQDRKdi3AQBgkBaPqEAupTOSKVJb8dt7HClOR_HZY3IDsA

We were not in the evacuation zone, but we ended up spending most of the day at my Grandma's home who was graciously willing to accept us at 5AM.

Since then the gas leaks have been taken care of.