Thanks for the compliments! So glad it worked out...but like I said, we don't stay put much(too adventurous) at a single place, so we knew we would be ok. We were more concerned about our friends (who we probably won't travel or share lodging with for this long again. lol).
I have a canon A85. It is my 3rd one. I love it(reviewed it on Cnet when I bought the 1st one in '04), but it is no longer made. You can still get it if you search for it. I have underwater housing for it, otherwise I would get the newest model which I believe is the A1100IS which is 12.1 megapixels. Mine is 4.1 and honestly, unless you are going to blow the h*ll up out of the photo, do you really need that much?
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0407/04072002canona85.asp