Since I lived in southern California for 24 years, I've been through MANY earthquakes plus my fair share up here in Seattle!
The 2 I remember the most are the Northridge quake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northridge_earthquake because I was 7 months pregnant with Alana. We had a waterbed at the time. Somehow or another, I managed to fly out of that bed and into the doorway!
The other one is the Nisqually quake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisqually_earthquake
I was working on the 2nd floor of an older building at Boeing and that thing shook! Most of our factory building are made out of metal, so it was very noisy! IIRC, the building was closed for a couple days due to some damage.