I'm SO with you on this, Fishpig!  I have always said that no trip less than six days is worth taking.  If you have rainy or windy weather that lasts for three days, and you only have a three day trip, that is your entire trip and it is all you remember!  If you have bad weather for three or four days and your trip is eight or ten, it is just a small component of a wonderful experience!

It took us about five canoe trips to begin planning in a layover day or two.  I enjoyed every single trip, even the ones when we moved every day, but I enjoyed the ones more when there were days for relaxing and unwinding and just "being there".

Now that we are older, we probably "need" the layover days, but even when we didn't, we sure did enjoy them.