Photos: A 24-hour tourist at the top of the world

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The whale bone arch, remnants of a bowhead whale, is one of Barrow's top attractions.

Your sample itinerary.

11:30 a.m.

You arrive in Barrow on April Fools Day to a 30-below wind chill; no joke. You move, stiffly, through the logistics of arrival: rental car, hotel check in, stow bags.

Noon

You go looking for a polar bear on a tip from the Top of the World Hotel staff. You cruise up and down Stevenson Street at 20 mph, along the Arctic Ocean, scanning the one-dimensional, white expanse for a blob of off-white fur. You're scared silly to get out of the car to actually have a decent look, for fear one might pop out from behind the massive drifts and ridges that made up the vast snowscape.You do, however, work up the courage to take your picture underneath the whale bone arch, or next to a whale carcass.

1 p.m.

After an hour or so, with no luck on your polar bear hunt, you head back into town for a late lunch. You cruise around looking for Sam & Lee's—a Korean-owned, Chinese restaurant with the best spicy chicken noodle soup in town, according to one of the locals.

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