Love this stuff, but pre-dawn not gonna happen. :-)
That said, if you ever get the chance to see a total eclipse of the sun, do not for your life miss it. It's an experience that elevates your intuition of the universe and your place in it, and the sensory feeling of it is all encompassing.
The weirdest thing for me was how cold it got, even though the intensity of the light didn't change. Everything looked as if it was still full daylight, but it felt so very, very wrong. It really helped you understand how an event like that could scare people before astronomy, since it's like removing a huge constant of life, throwing everything into uncertainty.
The second thing you really should have on your bucket list is the northern lights. Not exactly astronomy, but you're looking at a night sky, so... The most surprising thing about the northern lights is how big it is. Pictures don't do it justice, it's not a thing in the sky, instead the entire sky is on fire and wobbling.