Sounds like a P&S is what you are looking for. There's a bunch out there in that price range and all do a pretty fair job. We use a P&S at work and because multiple people use it and it is likely to be dropped or subjected to other abuses. We've used a Panasonic for the past several years, but is suffered one to many drops and recently replaced it with a Nikon. Both work well and take fine photos if you use them within their limitations.
Yep, P&S sounds like the way to go. You could get a Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Kodak, or Panasonic. I don't know of a specific model that I'd recommend, but all those folks make good, solid point & shoot cameras.